


Eternal War

by peggyrogers



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Modern Steggy AU, Old Couple Kick Ass
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-29
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-08 03:45:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 26,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12856047
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peggyrogers/pseuds/peggyrogers
Summary: Steve Rogers and Peggy Carter have been adjusting to their modern lives as well as they can and have finally settled. But soon they find themselves on the run after SHIELD is compromised and they are framed as fugatives.Winter Soldier AU where Peggy is on the run with Steve instead, follows the films narrative.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Quick note: So before kicking off the chapter just some information on Peggy's state. It's not gone into deep detail but the headcanon for this is that Howard wanted to test what he had left of the Super Soldier Serum on a woman and gave Peggy a dose, not as much as Steve but enough to enhance her in some ways. So when she went on the valkyrie with Steve in this version, she also was able to survive through the ice.

The sun had barely even risen on the Monday morning that Sam Wilson got up for his run, he tries to get at least an hour in every morning. He could barely sleep anyways so he thought it best to get some exercise in. As he was running around the Washington Monument, he was having a nice, peaceful jog when he heard what sounded like not one but  _ two  _ people coming up to him fast. 

 

Steve Rogers was on one side of him as he said “On your left”

 

Then Sam had another voice appear “Right” he looked and saw along side the legend that is  _ Captain America  _ was the legend is  _ Agent Carter _ . 

 

Nevertheless, he carried on going as the pair went racing ahead at impeccable speed. By the time he got near Lincoln Memorial. The two had lapped him and came up behind him once again, saying the same thing. Sam nodded “Uh huh, left right. Got it” 

 

Still he carried on going, full daylight now broke through and yet again he heart the fast steps come up from behind him, looking both ways as he saw them coming he shook his head “Don’t say it. Don’t you guys say it”

 

“On your left”

 

“Right” Carter said with more of a smirk on her face as they passed him for the third time.

 

“C’mon!” Sam yelled, trying to catch up with them but it was borderline useless. He came to a stop and dropped his hands down on his knees. He heard that Agent Carter was just as fast as her partner, but he didn’t know if the rumours were true. Clearly they were. 

 

Sam made his way over to the resting point after the run. Sitting himself up against the tree. He was taking his time to catch his breath when he heard Rogers come up once again “Need a medic?”

 

He looked up and saw them stood in front, Carter swatting his back for his teasing as she pulled the cap from her sports bottle up and took a sip. But Sam laughed “I need a new set of lungs. Man, you two ran like thirteen miles in thirty minutes”

 

Peggy hummed a small laugh as she swallowed her water and then joked as she put the cap back down “I suppose we got a late start then”

 

Sam let out a breathless laugh as he briefly looked away but then came back with “Really? You should be ashamed of yourself. You should go take another lap...did you take it? I assume you just took it”

 

Peggy let out an amused and rather impressed smirk at his come back, she muttered to Steve in her glance to him as she was turning her head to look around “I like him” 

 

“What unit were you in?” Steve asked. Noticing the symbol on his sweater. Causing Peggy to look back at him. 

 

“Fifty eighth power rescue, but now I’m working down at the VA” he held his hand up “Sam Wilson” 

 

Steve slapped his hand in his, saying as he pulled him up “Steve Rogers”

 

“Yeah, kind of put that together” he looked to Peggy and smiled as he held his hand out to her “Miss Carter” 

 

Peggy grinned as she shook his hand “Peggy will do just fine” 

 

Sam just nodded and looked at the pair of them. They even had the same brand of gym gear on, except her shirt was black whilst his was grey, they clearly didn’t want to be  _ totally  _ matching “Must’ve freaked you guys out coming home after the whole defrosting thing”

 

Steve and Peggy looked to each other, both taking in a breath and both nodding, Steve looked back to Sam “Took some getting used to” 

 

“And then some” Peggy added softly, then looking down at her watch and seeing the time. She slapped Steve’s arm, they were due to be picked up soon enough. 

 

“S’good to meet you, Sam” Steve said for the both of them, Peggy giving him a tight smile and the pair turned to walk, but then heard Wilson call “It’s your bed, right?”

 

They both turned again, Peggy raising a brow “What’s that?”

 

“Your bed it’s too soft” Sam stated as he walked over to them “When I was over there I sleep on the ground use rocks for pillows like a caveman. Now I’m home, lying in my bed it’s like-”

 

Suddenly at the same time Steve and Peggy said “Marshmellow” 

 

Sam looked back to them, Steve nodded and elaborated “Like lying on a marshmellow, feel you’re gonna sink right to the floor” 

 

Sam gave them a small laugh and nodded to the statement, Peggy couldn’t help but pry “If you don’t mind my asking. How long were you over there?”

 

He shrugged, he didn’t mind sharing at all “Two tours...you must miss the good old days huh”

 

Peggy scoffed, putting her hand on Steve’s shoulder as she went to fix the heel on her trainer that had folded up “Christ no. At least I don’t” 

 

“Foods a lot better. We used to boil  _ everything _ . No polios good, internet so helpful”

 

“ _ So  _ helpful” Peggy added, standing back up straight and stating as he put her hands on her hips “Quite fond of that music app”

 

Sam raised a brow as he took a swing “Spotify?”

 

Peggy pointed to him and nodded “Yes. That one” 

 

He grinned and then thought he would give them a bit of his own good taste of music “Marvin Gaye, nineteen seventy two,  _ troubleman  _ soundtrack” 

 

Steve nodded and pulled at his notepad which made Peggy roll her eyes. Though, she did find it quite sweet. He had the memory of a sieve with these kind of things “Everything you missed jammed into one album”

 

“I’ll put it on the list”

 

They had a few things on there that they wanted to get through, Peggy was particularly interested in getting through the thai food one. She heard good things. Peggy’s phone then buzzed, taking it out of her pocket she received a text.

 

_ Romanoff: MISSION ALERT.  _

_                 EXTRACTION IMMINENT.  _

_                MEET AT THE CURB. ;)  _

 

Peggy nodded “Now we  _ really  _ have to get going” 

 

“Duty calls” Steve sighed to Sam, holding out his hand “Thanks for the run” 

 

As Sam gave it a shake, Steve then couldn’t help but once again tease “If that’s what you wanna call running”

 

Peggy once again rolled her eyes at his macho crap and tutted to him. He partly did it to get on her nerves rather than anyone else's. Sam raised his brows “Oh that’s how it is?”

 

“That’s how it is”

 

Sam dropped his hand and motioned it to Peggy “To be honest I think it was Peggy here who had the upper hand out of the two of you”

 

Peggy, with her hands resting on her hips looked from Sam to Steve with an open smirk on her face as she pressed her tongue into her cheek and let out a smug laugh. She slapped the Captain’s chest and gave him a light push as she shook Sam’s hand “Come run with us anytime” 

 

“I’ll keep that in mind ma’am”

 

Suddenly, a black sports car pulled up at the curb. The window went down and Natasha Romanoff looked right at them “Hey guys. Any of you know where the Smithsonian is? I’m here to pick up a couple of fossils”

 

Steve and Peggy made their way over to her, hearing Steve comment “That’s hilarious” 

 

“Yes, it’s not like you haven’t used that line about one hundred times before” Peggy said as Steve opened the door for her, Peggy pulled the front seat forward but then nudged him to get in the back. Steve sighed but did as he was told. Peggy sat in the front seat and looked to Sam as he gaped at Natasha “We can’t run everywhere”

 

“No you can’t” he smirked with his eyes still on their red headed friend. 

 

Peggy looked to her and muttered “Give him something to gorp at” 

 

Natasha smirked to her and understood fully, revving the engine before speeding off down the street. Leaving the tyre burns to blow into Sam’s face as he watched them drive off. 

 

“Nice morning run you two?”

 

Peggy put her sports bottle in the cup holder and attempted to get more comfortable against the seat “I’d much rather of stayed in bed”

 

Steve laughed “Yeah. The one time I went without her and she ripped my head off for letting her sleep whilst I got a run in”

 

Peggy remained silent, seeing Natasha look at her in the corner of her eye, she just shrugged. To be fair that was when they just started getting into this life, now that they were well and truly in it she would appreciate a lie in every now and then.

 

Natasha shook her head once getting her eyes back to the front “Well I don’t understand you, Rogers”

 

“Why?”

 

Natasha shrugged “Well why the hell would you want to get up for a run when  _ Carter  _ is in your bed” 

 

Peggy huffed with amusement through her nose and looked at Steve over her shoulder and he couldn’t even go against that, she had a very valid point “Maybe we should rethink our morning priorities”

 

“I think so too” Peggy laughed.

 

Natasha then turned her radio back on “Alright enough of that. I’ve gotta get you crazy kids to Headquarters where you can get a shower and straight into uniform because we are heading out as soon as possible after our briefing this afternoon”

 

“Where too?” Peggy then asked. 

 

“Some part over the Indian ocean. I don’t know the full details yet but once we get to SHIELD we’ll be given the full story by Fury” 

 

“I wouldn’t bet on that” Peggy muttered under her breath, seeing Steve give her a look through the rearview mirror that said he was with her on that point. As much as they wanted to, they couldn't bring themselves to trust Fury. Not fully anyway, he was always holding back.

 

* * *

 

Peggy walked out of the women’s changing room in her SHIELD uniform that was more of a similar style to Hill’s except on one side of having the SHIELD badge, she also had a small stitched patch of  _ the  _ shield on the left side of her chest. Peggy actually suggested it, it wasn’t so she was  _ branded  _ or owned by Steve and Captain America. But because they were a team, the only Howling Commandos left and they owed it to their fellow team members that they stuck together. 

 

It’s just a little symbol that they will always have each others back and that certainly brought them both great comfort. 

 

Peggy walked down the hall as Steve walked out of his changing room, Peggy raised a brow “Stealth suit today?”

 

“That’s what they told me to wear”

 

Peggy kept a subtle smirk on her face as she looked at him in all his glory, hooking her index fingers into his belt and biting her lip, she looked up to him “Well I certainly like it better than that god awful suit they had made for you for the battle of New York”

 

“Was it really that bad?” 

 

“It looked like one of those...what do you call them? Onesies?” 

 

Steve shook his head at her with an amused look on his face as much as he tried to resist breaking to her comedic ways “You’re cruel” 

 

“No I think you’ll find the ones who made that suit were the cruel ones” 

 

Before he could say anything to her, the lead of member of STRIKE, their tactical team called them over “Hey! Cap! Agent Carter!”

 

Peggy took her hands from Steve’s belt as they turned and looked to Rumlow. He nodded his head for them to follow him in the boardroom, looks like Fury was ready to give them their briefing. Rumlow wasn’t in the room with them, he was clearly just the messenger on his travels. It was just them two, Fury and Natasha, who was already sat down. 

 

Peggy looked at her oddly as they sat down “How long have you been in here for?”

 

“Not long before you”

 

With Steve and Peggy now seated. Fury got into the information “We’ve had our ship with many assets of our organisation go off course on the indian ocean, we’ve got no signal from them. Nothing for hours, we know something is wrong. Most likely it’s been taken over, right now Rumlow and his guys are trying to get all the intel possible on who it could be but I have a hunch. French Mercenary Georges Butroc, he’s been known to hijack ships as of lately” 

 

Peggy glanced to the screens of the last update on the ship “When was it due back?”

 

“It’s not that, Agent Carter. It’s the fact it’s going in a completely wrong way we have that much intel on it to know that something is wrong”

 

To Peggy it sounded rather odd. But not the sense of Fury saying something bad must have happened, it just sounded weird to her. She couldn’t help but shake that it all seemed structured to be this way, but then again that might be her just overthinking things. It has been known every now and then that she was wrong about things though it would be like pulling teeth for her to actually admit that. 

 

Fury put his hands behind his back “STRIKE team are to accompany you on this mission”

 

Peggy wasn’t too sure about Rumlow either, she couldn’t put her finger on it but something about him seemed off. Steve however thought Rumlow was okay, he was good at what he does and was pleasant enough off clock. 

 

She rested against the chair and said in a light breath “When do we leave?”

 

“Could be anytime, as soon as we get the green light from STRIKE. Could be an hour, could be two. That’s why I wanted you guys suited up, so you’re ready to go as soon as you’re called”

 

Steve nodded, slapping his hands down on the arms of the chair “We have chance to eat then?” he felt Peggy shoot him a glance, looking to her he just shrugged and mumbled to her “What?”

 

Peggy just rolled her eyes and looked away from him. Ever since they got back into this world, Steve has wanted to eat all the new glorious food. If his metabolism wasn’t so fast she’d say that the captain would have got a jelly gut by now. 

 

“Yes Cap you will”

 

“Good. So we just wait for the word” Steve said as he rose from his chair, Fury just nodded as added confirmation. Natasha and Peggy also stood and left the room. Steve looked to Natasha as he and Peggy were ready to head towards the food hall, they were yet to have anything to eat since  _ dawn  _ and Peggy was in fact pretty hungry despite her teasing to Steve. 

 

“You coming, Natasha?”

 

“In a minute. Need to make a call to Barton” she said casually. 

 

They went their separate ways. Steve arched his back, stretching as they walked “Man I need a coffee” 

 

He noticed that she was rather quiet, looking down to her, he gave her a gentle nudge with his elbow “You okay?”

 

“This mission just sounds shifty. That’s all” she then shrugged it off “But we have a duty to go and check it out don’t we?”

 

“S’what we signed up for” Steve said to her with a small smile, which she then exchanged in a more forced and tight manner. They walked to the food hall. Peggy got herself a tea and a blueberry muffin whilst Steve got a coffee and a meaty steak baguette. 

 

Sitting across the way from him, she shook her head at him with a smirk on her face “It’s a bit early for steak don’t you think?”

 

“Never too early” he said before taking a large bit out of it, Peggy tapped his hand “Pig” 

 

“Love it when you talk dirty”

 

“Stop it” she scowled, but then breaking out a brief amused smile before she began to pick apart her baked good. Steve looked to her and said after chewing down the chunk of meat in his mouth “Looks like our night out is gonna have to be postponed till tomorrow”

 

Peggy frowned “It seems so. Though we had no idea where we were going to go”

 

“I’m sure you would’ve found a place” he smiled. It was her turn to pick what to do for their evening out. 

 

“Well. The sooner we get this job done. The sooner I can dictate as to where we go” she teased as she brought her cup of tea to her lips. 

 

Steve just  _ gazing  _ at her as did so with his ocean eyes that she still finds herself drowning in every so often. As far as partners go, he has never been hard to look at. 

 

* * *

 

She was right to say that something was dodgy. It wasn’t a complete bust, they did manage to rescue all 25 hostages unharmed. The thing Peggy was disappointed in the most was Natasha, the minute she felt like she was getting to know her as a friend more than a colleague, she gets hit with reality that this widow has secrets and that she didn’t really know her at all. 

 

Fury set Natasha a completely different operation, her going off and doing it could have made a disaster out of the whole thing. Steve was furious, but then she had to back Natasha up slightly by reminding him that she was just following orders like they were doing, if he should be furious with anyone it should be with Fury himself, but he already had that covered. 

 

Steve had half a mind to march into that office as soon as the quinjet touched the ground. But Peggy  _ ordered  _ him to get home and sleep. It was better to have it out with Fury with a more level and awake head. Being sleep deprived would have just made him more irritable. So he did as she said and decided to try and get some of his anger slept off. But Peggy just saw that when the morning came he was still just as annoyed. They walked in the headquarters together and all the way up to Fury’s office.

 

As they reached the door, Peggy muttered to him before the door opened “Remember, keep your cool” 

 

Steve didn’t respond, he just marched in as the door opened and said to Nick in a harsh tone “You just can’t stop yourself from lying, can you?” 

 

That wasn’t exactly what she had in mind as keeping cool but she wagered that it could have been worse. The pair of them walked over to Nick’s desk and stood before him as he began his defense, Peggy then got in rather sharply “You put those people’s lives at risk. Those hostages could have died” 

 

“Yeah well I sent the greatest soldier and agent in history to make sure that that didn’t happen”

 

“Soldier’s trust each other that’s what makes it an army, not a bunch of guys running around shooting guns”

 

Peggy raised her brows to Steve’s point “And you can take that from those who have been in one”

 

Nick then rose from his chair “Last time I trusted someone I lost an eye” it sent them all into brief silence, Nick sighed and then added on “Look, I didn’t want either of you doing anything you weren’t comfortable with. Agent Romanoff is comfortable with everything”

 

Steve got all authoritative “We can’t lead a team if the people we’re leading have missions of their own”

 

Peggy rubbed her forehead and sighed “It can easily make things chaotic” 

 

“It’s called compartmentalisation. Nobody spills the secrets because nobody knows them”

 

Steve and Peggy just looked at him before Steve said in a more quiet tone “Except you”

 

Fury looked between the two of them “I get it. Old Chester Philips did things little differently with you guys back in the day. Well I’m sorry.  _ But _ you’re wrong about me, I do share, I’m nice like that” 

 

After a moment of silence, Peggy then said as she folded her arms “Prove it” 

 

Nick let out a breath through his nose and then ordered for the pair of them to follow him. Taking them down to underneath the building where they held the helicarriers, and a hell of a lot of them. It was actually rather unbelievable, but to them, this wasn’t comfort. It didn’t bring them self assurance. It just showed them that people in this world had the right to be scared, they will become even more scared when they went into the air like Fury was intended. 

 

“By holding a gun to everyone and you’re calling it protection” Steve muttered under her breath.

 

“Y’know I read those SSR files” Nick said, making him get a stern look from Peggy more than Steve “ _ Greatest generation _ ? You guys did some nasty stuff”

 

Peggy turned and faced Nick “Yes, we may have had to do things at times that made us not sleep very well at night. But we did what we did because we were fighting for people’s freedom”

 

“Exactly” Steve agreed, pointing up to the machines “This isn’t freedom. This is fear” 

 

“SHIELD takes the world as it is, not as we like it to be…and it’s getting damn near the time for you both to be getting with that programme”

 

Staring at Nick right in the eye, Steve said sternly “Think I can speak for the both of us when I say don’t hold your breath”

 

Peggy just nodding in agreement. Steve put his hand on the small of Peggy’s back as they took their leave. Peggy ran her fingers through her hair and muttered to him under her breath “I want to get out of this uniform and just get home right now” 

 

“Read my damn mind” Steve mumbled back to her as they walked back to the elevator and sent themselves back up, Peggy rested against the barrier and looked out at the view. Slowly shaking her head.

 

Steve rested against the glass and looked to her “What? What’s on your mind?”

 

Peggy pressed her thumbs against her forehead as she looked down and took a breath “Things are just so bloody different” she looked to him and pointed her hands to outside the glass “Did you get a good look at those monstrosities that they want to send out into the world?” 

 

“Yeah” Steve said breathlessly. 

 

“We worked our arses off for  _ years  _ to try and make this world better. We practically died for it and look at the result. The world is worse” 

 

Steve walked over to her, putting his hands on her arms, he turned her to face him and looked at her with a kind look on his face “We did make the world better, if Schmidt had of succeeded then this world would have been unrecognisable. The world may still be a mess but at least it looks like same...just with bigger buildings and better technology”

 

Peggy let out a stiff laugh before looking down to the floor for a moment, then to take her eyes back up to him as he rubbed her arm and added on “All we can do is carry on what we’re doing. Cause we’re pretty damn good at what we do, you especially” 

 

Peggy gave him an embarrassed look and landed her hand on his chest and picked at the touch fabric of his uniform. She let out a light sigh and just smiled back him “You’re right, I’m just having one of those moments”

 

The two of them had their up and down days when thinking back to their past lives. Their old friends, and sometimes it just got to them. It seemed seeing that world hasn’t shifted so much since their past life hit Peggy once again.

 

“Happens to the best of us” Steve muttered before leaning forward and pressing his lips against her forehead, pulling away just as the doors opened. Peggy gave him a grateful look for his attempts at comfort which did work on her, she gave his arm a squeeze before stepping out. 

 

They went back into their changing rooms and got back into their casual wear. Peggy ran her fingers through her brown locks that now traveled to just above her shoulders, when they got out the ice and after going through all the turmoil, her hair went much longer than she was used to. Now she had cut it back, even slightly more shorter than it used to be. New life, new hair.  _ Sort of _ . Certainly more modern, and Steve had done the same, they tried to fit into this world as much as possible. 

 

She was just so grateful that she had him, she was also glad that he had her because God can only imagine how alone he would have been if she wasn’t. And visa versa. The thought of them not being by each others side ran through her mind more often than not. It was almost as if she couldn’t help it. 

 

Peggy met him in the middle, he raised his brows to her as he pointed “Got em?”

 

She pulled his keys for the bike out of her leather jacket and held them out in front of him. Neither of them trusted him with the keys and both of them certainly trusted Peggy with them. She placed them in his palm and smiled “Safe as houses with me”

 

“You talkin’ bout me or the keys?” he smirked, closing his hand up as he took them from her. 

 

Peggy just smirked at him as she linked her arm with his, pulling him towards the entrance and not giving him an answer which of course was an answer within itself. They walked over to his bike, Steve passed Peggy his shield and she put it on her back. Adjusting the straps smaller for it to tighten around his body better before she got on the bike and wrapped her arms around Steve’s waist, as soon as she did he put the engine on and moved out of the garage.

 

And to their relief they were out of there. 

 

* * *

 

They briefly headed back to their apartment building, going in their own garage they swapped his bike for her car and decided to go for a drive, just to get out. Ending up where they usually end up when they were feeling rather  _ sentimental _ . The Smithsonian now had on a Captain America exhibition, but they did feel like it was a good place for both of them. Peggy didn’t need for her name to be on the wall for it to be hers as well. 

 

Steve thought that putting a baseball cap would make him seem more discrete amongst the crowd. Peggy just thought he just looked like Captain America in a baseball cap but she let him be, whilst she on the other hand stuck to just what she was wearing. If they both walked around with caps on they would most certainly look obvious or just avid baseball fans. 

 

With subtly, Peggy entwined her fingers with his as they walked through. As Peggy looked over to the pre-serum version of the man beside her. Steve saw that a young boy had clocked on with who he was. Steve gave him a soft smile and with his free hand, he put his finger to his mouth as a playful and silent plea for the boy to keep it their secret. To which the starstruck young boy just nodded to. 

 

Steve smiled and then looked to Peggy, lightly tugging on her hand and they carried on walking through. Walking over to his old motorcycle, Peggy giggled and whispered as she rested her head against his arm for a moment “Remember when you and I took that for a test run” 

 

“We almost ruined Bucky and the guys tents before I actually got the hang of the thing” 

 

The pair quietly laughed together. Steve turning his head for his mouth to rest against the top of her head as hers pressed to his arm. Peggy skimmed her forehead against his arm before lifting her head back up “Thank god you can do better now”

 

“Only just” Steve joked as they then carried on walking around. Things then went back to being upsettingly sentimental as they came to the Howling Commandos part. Just seeing the uniforms of their former friends was enough to make Peggy’s eyes gloss over. 

 

Steve’s eyes then went over to the memorial they had of Bucky and they gravitated towards it, as the voiceover about Steve and Bucky’s friendship. Peggy squeezed his arm as she wrapped hers around it and said “He would have been proud of you”

 

“You think?” 

 

“I know” Peggy whispered, giving him a loving smile. Steve just gave her a warm, grateful smile and squeezed her hand. They walked around some more, going into the screening room and watching the footage of them back in the war. The interviews with Howard Stark as he talked about Steve mainly as that who they were asking about, but he mentioned Peggy whenever he could which she was grateful for. 

 

As a couple, they were in the public eye quite a bit. Their story was made more theatrical than it was, that they felt it was anyway. But to the public it was epic, the media made it more so. But they liked coming here, sitting in the dark and watching the footage, some featuring the pair together. 

 

Peggy rubbed his arm and said quietly due to other people watch with intensity “Shall we go and get something to eat?”

 

Steve took his eyes from the screen and over to her. Just giving her a nod and saying in a very quiet whisper “Yeah”

 

“Come on then” Peggy glanced to the screen as the commandos popped up “They’ll always be here for us to visit” 

 

Sitting at the back, they quietly slid off the seats and left the screening room. Hand in hand they quickly made their way out, they had to even more so when they stepped out into the main lobby of the Smithsonian and something pointed them out, people started getting their phones out. They got to their car as soon as possible and drove off. 

 

Peggy drove further away from the Smithsonian in case people were going to go out and about to track them down. Finally they got to go and have that Thai food. Peggy going for a splendid noodle dish and Steve deciding to have a curry. 

 

Now understanding the buzz about it. But they didn’t just talk about how great the food was, they talked about work. 

 

“Peggy you do realise that all we really have is each other?” Steve said as he looked down at his dish, then when he got silence he looked back to her and elaborated more with a shrug “I mean, we have a team. We have  _ the avengers  _ and stuff but...when it comes down to it I can tell you there’s only one person I trust with my life and that’s you”

 

“And as flattering as that is in this line of work it isn’t all that comforting having each other and each other only”

 

“So you feel the same?” it was more of a statement than a question, but the tone of wanting an answer was still there. 

 

Peggy swirled her fork into her noodles and then gave a gentle nod “I do”

 

Steve gave her a small smile but then nodded “Like you said, as flattering as it is, it’s not all that comforting with this job”

 

“We can trust Natasha” Peggy said, in a way that was trying to convince herself as well as him. Steve sat back in his chair and just raised his brows at her “Really? We don’t know much about her and it’s clear that she doesn’t mind going behind our backs to get a job done”

 

“She didn’t stab our backs though and I give credit for that” 

 

He just shrugged, Peggy sighed “Let’s put it this way shall we. Out of them all, she’s the one I can trust the most. More than Fury” 

 

“Stark?” 

 

Peggy frowned at him “Tony is a complicated man”

 

“And Natasha isn’t a complicated woman?” Steve a laughed.

 

Peggy pointed her fork at him with a smirk and said once leaning over the table slightly “We can go round in circles for hours, Rogers, but let’s just leave it on what we both agree on. I have you and you have me”

 

Steve looked at her with a warm feeling spread from his heart through his entire body and it shone through in his eyes, he gently lowered her hand down on the table, resting his on top and stroking the back of her hand with his thumb as he slowly nodded “Yeah. We can agree on that” 

 

Peggy grinned to him and then pulled her hand from under his to carry on with her meal, him then doing the same.

 

* * *

 

By the time they had gotten home it was getting rather dark. After their meal, Steve wanted to go to visit Sam Wilson at the talks he mentioned that he does, they got talking to him for quite some time about things. Both their past and his. Sam was easy to talk to, they liked him a lot. 

 

They parked the car up in the garage and headed upstairs. They had been living together ever since they both came out of the ice, it wasn’t really for  _ romantic  _ purposes, but more of the case that neither of them wanted to be alone. Of course, living together helped in all departments. 

 

As they made their way up, their neighbour,  _ Kate  _ came out of hers with her laundry basket in her hands. 

 

“Hi, Kate” Peggy said politely. 

 

She stared at Peggy. Of course her real name wasn’t Kate, and she was much closer to Peggy than Peggy knew. But she couldn’t tell her that, not just yet. For now, she had to remain being Kate. The nurse down the hall. Not Sharon, the niece of the great Peggy Carter. 

 

She smiled “Peggy, Steve. Good day?”

 

Steve sighed as Peggy rested her exhausted body against his once he said “It will when we get in there and sit down” 

 

_ Sharon  _ pulled a face “One of those days, huh?”

 

“Indeed” Peggy said with exhaustion, dragging her fingers through the side of her hair. She then motioned her hand to her washing “You are more than welcome to use our dryer”

 

“Oh thanks but I already have a load in down stairs and trust me you don’t want my scrubs. I just had to spend my time in the infectious disease ward, so” 

 

“Point taken” Steve laughed.

 

“Well you guys have a good night”

 

“You too” Peggy smiled, as they turned. Peggy’s focus went onto inside their apartment “Did you leave the record player on?”

 

“No?...”

 

She put the back of her hand to his chest as a silent order to get him to listen, then when he too focused. He heard the music play on the inside of their apartment too. Peggy shook her head and muttered “I think we have company”

 

“Window?”

 

She just nodded and pushed him back to go ahead and get them on their way. They made their way round the building and got in their apartment through the building at the side. Remaining as quiet as possible. Peggy grabbed her gun from the holster they had strapped under the kitchen counter and Steve grabbed his shield that they left in the hallway before they headed out this afternoon. Slowly, they walked down the hall. With Peggy behind him, Steve peered his head around and saw Fury sat in their arm chair in the dark corner.

 

He sighed, putting his hand on Peggy’s to tell her that it was okay. Whispering who it was to her. Peggy dropped her gun and stepped out to stand on the other side of Steve to get a good luck at Nick. Not seeing the full extent of his injuries properly “I’m sure Steve nor I recall giving you a key?” 

 

“You really think I’d need one? My wife kicked me out”

 

Steve looked to him “Didn’t know you were married”

 

“A lot of things you don’t know about me”

 

Steve sighed, getting up from leaning against the wall “I know, Nick, that’s the problem” he went to the light switch and when flicking it on. Steve and Peggy now saw his injuries in full light. Their expressions dropping but before they could say anything, Nick turned the light back off and told them to remain quiet. 

 

Typing out on his phone to then show them :  _ EARS EVERYWHERE  _

 

Peggy stared at the message and sighed as she looked to Steve who just kept his eyes on Nick. So much for a peaceful night in. 

 

“I’m sorry I had to do this but I had no place else to crash” 

 

_ SHIELD COMPROMISED _

 

The message made all the hair on Peggy’s body stick up. She could tell the same happened with Steve. Peggy looked back to Nick “Who else knows about  _ your wife _ ?”

 

Nick slowly stood up as he typed again “Just”

 

_ US THREE _

 

“My friends”

 

Steve raised his brows “Is that what we are?” 

 

“That’s up to you-” 

 

Suddenly, quite literally out of nowhere, Nick had a shot hit him in his back. 

 

“Shit!” Peggy cried as she and Steve lunged forward and grabbed Nick from falling on the floor, the pair of them dragged him over to the kitchen. Steve saw a glimmer of what looked like a metal piece of uniform or something come from outside. 

 

Nick dropped a USB stick to Steve’s hand and said breathlessly “Don’t...trust...anyone” 

 

Their front door then got booted open and a female was heard, Peggy looked over and saw their neighbour walk in with a gun held up “Captain Rogers? Agent Carter?” 

 

When she clocked them, she explained herself very briefly “I’m Agent Thirteen, SHIELD’s special service”

 

They both just stared at her and said at the same time “Kate?”

 

“I was signed to protect the pair of you”

 

“On whose order?” Peggy demanded. Quite insulted that it was felt they couldn’t protect themselves. 

 

The young agent then froze for a moment when she saw Nick lying on the floor “His” she dropped down on her knees and checked for a pulse before pulling out a talkie “Fox trot is down, he’s unresponsive I need EMTs”

 

_ “Do we have a twenty on the shooter?”  _

 

As Peggy was knelt down at Nick’s head, she looked up to Steve as he looked back out the window and then said in a stern yet clear voice “Tell ‘em I’m in pursuit” 

 

Before she could even blink, he was crashing himself through a window “Steve!” she sighed and cursed under her breath when looking back down to Fury, then she looked to  _ Agent 13  _ and raised her brows “You and I are going to have a chat” 

 

Sharon simply shook her head “Now’s not the time”

 

“Fine. But I expect answers from you at some point in the near future” she said sternly before standing up and heading over to the window. Seeing the window across the street was smashed into. 

 

All she could do now was wait to see if he had caught the bastard or not. 


	2. Chapter 2

 

They got to the hospital as soon as they could, following the ambulance that had Nick as it tore it’s way down the highway. Steve didn’t catch the shooter. The shooter was just as fast, just as strong and had a metal arm. They weren’t just dealing with a professional, they were dealing with some kind of master. 

 

On the way, Peggy called Natasha, knowing how close she felt to Nick, she knew that it was the right thing to do. Maria Hill was already there, she was at SHIELD when Agent 13 called in about Nick. 

 

They rushed Nick into surgery and all they could do now was stand there and quite literally watch them do their best in trying to save him, but it didn’t look good. Everyone in the spectator room could tell that. Natasha came running in, right beside Peggy and Steve at the window. She just stared at him for a moment, in silence as she tried let her mind process what was happening. 

 

After what felt like a long, painful silence, Natasha finally spoke “Is he gonna make it?”

 

Peggy took in a breath through her nose and shook her head “We don’t know”

 

“Tell me about the shooter”

 

Peggy saw Steve sigh in the corner of her eye “He’s fast.  _ Strong _ ...had a metal arm” 

 

“Ballistics?”

 

Maria then joined the conversation as she stood beside Natasha “Three slugs, no rifle and completely untraceable”

 

“Soviet made” Natasha stated, causing Maria to look at her and respond in a tone that made her unsure of how Natasha knew that “Yeah…”

 

In the reflection of the viewing window, she saw Natasha’s face quickly drop, before she could turn to her and ask if the description of the man became familiar to her. Fury’s levels and heart rate suddenly dropped. Their attention going back to the director who was lying on the bed with his life hanging on a mere thread. 

 

“Don’t do this to me, Nick” Natasha muttered under her breath “Don’t do this to me”

 

But it seemed her silent plea did no help. His heart was gone and so was he. The doctors stopped working on him and soon pronounced that he was dead. Peggy bowed her head for a moment and turned to Natasha in attempt to give her some sense of comfort, as soon as her hand touched her back, Natasha walked away before she let her emotions get the best of her. Peggy’s eyes meeting Maria’s watery ones before she too just looked away. 

 

When she turned, she saw that Steve was gone too, just to the other side of the room for him to take a breath. Neither of them were crying, but they were upset. Just because they didn’t know him long enough to fully trust him like Maria and Natasha did didn’t mean they weren’t upset about his passing. Peggy walked over to him, her hands started against his back put then traveled as she stood to his side and wrapped her arms around his waist as he put his arm around her and pulled her close, his mouth resting at the top of her head as they let out a defeated sigh. 

 

“Such a damn mess” he muttered, Peggy rubbed her lips together before simply answering back “I know” 

 

She pulled away slightly, one hand going to his back and the other resting against his waist beside her as she looked down at the USB that Nick had handed to Steve “We have to find out what’s on that thing”

 

“Yeah but we can’t let anyone else know. Fury was killed for this we can’t have people tailing us for it. We gotta hide it somewhere”

 

“Agreed. Just a matter of where, certainly not at the apartment”

 

“And most definitely not at SHIELD given that Fury says it’s compromised” 

 

“Poor Philips would be turning over his grave” Peggy muttered. 

 

Steve just looked at her, feeling like they had failed in someway in carrying on their friends legacy’s. Philips, Howard’s, the Commandos. They all helped built this place and they felt it as their duty to make sure their hard work was never tarnished. 

 

Peggy just shrugged to him with a sad look on her face, there wasn’t much they could do at this moment in time. 

 

Fury was taken out of the surgery room and laid out on a bed, the sheet pulled back so his face could be seen. Steve and Peggy went in with Natasha, who was clearly devastated. They gave her space and remained against the wall in silence. 

 

She just stood there, with tears running down her cheeks looking at a man who felt like a father to her. Maria then came in, she too looking worn down “I need to take him” 

 

They both looked to her, Peggy stepped forward “Natasha…”

 

The red head took in a breath, putting her hand on Fury’s head for the last time and then quickly headed out, Steve following her straight away. Peggy turned to Maria who then said “It’ll be hard on her for a while”

 

“For you too no doubt” Peggy said in a gentle voice as she went to walk out, stopping for a moment she put her hand on Maria’s shoulder as a sign for comfort and whispered “I’m sorry”

 

When Peggy reached outside, Natasha was questioning why Fury was in their apartment. But Steve wasn’t a good liar, he never was. She glanced to Peggy after he said he didn’t know, she too wasn’t a great liar when it came to facial expressions.

 

Down the hall, Rumlow called “Cap, they want you back at SHIELD” 

 

“Yeah give me a second” 

 

“They want you now” Rumlow glanced to Peggy “Pierce asked for  _ you _ ”

 

Of course he would. He tried to get Peggy out of the picture any chance he could, at least Fury respected them as a twosome. Steve looked to Peggy before saying in a stern tone to Rumlow “ _ Okay _ ”

 

As Rumlow turned, Peggy shrugged at Steve and told him not to worry about, putting their focus back on Natasha who sighed and then looked back and forth to them, shaking her head “You’re terrible liars”

 

With those words and those words only, Natasha walked away again. This time they just let her go, as Maria said this will be hard on her, she needs some space. Steve sighed deeply through his nose and then whispered to Peggy “We can’t go back to SHIELD with this thing on us”

 

“Give it to me” Peggy quickly demanded with her eyes still not on him. 

 

“What?”

 

This time she did look at him and repeated in a nod “Give it to me” 

 

Steve dug his hand into his back pocket and subtly handed it to Peggy, making it seem they were being mushy and holding hands, Peggy pushed the USB up her tight sleeve with her index finger. No one would be able to see it with her jacket still being on. Still holding his hand, she nodded “You go to SHIELD. I’ll hide the stick”

 

“Where?”

 

Peggy frowned at him “I don’t know yet but wherever I plant it I’ll be sure to let you know” she looked down the hall and saw Rumlow looking at them, she groaned under her breath, god she hated him, looking back to Steve she decided to make it look like she and Steve were having more of a personal conversation than a work one as she got up on her tiptoes for a brief moment to give him a quick kiss on the lips, which he wasn’t expecting at all. 

 

“Go back to SHIELD. Call me when you’re done” 

 

“Where’re you going to go? Back to the apartment?”

 

“I’m going to see our neighbour” Peggy let go of his hand and nodded down the hall “Go back with Rumlow” 

 

Steve just nodded and then walked down the hallway, doing as she said. Peggy looked around once he was gone and tried to see if there was anywhere she could hide it in here, because it would be quite a low-key place. She then looked up to the vending machine that was currently opened to restock and got a sudden idea.

 

* * *

 

Peggy went back to the apartment building, it was so late and she was absolutely exhausted but she had to speak to this Agent  _ Kate  _ or whatever her name was before they got wrapped up in the turmoil surrounding Nick’s death. 

 

She wasted no time and knocked on her door. Sharon opened the door and was surprised to see her “Peggy”

 

“You are going to tell me everything” Peggy ordered, making her way into her apartment without permission which was something she would rarely do “Are you aware Nick Fury is dead?”

 

She turned around and saw the young woman tense up, folding her arms and nodding “I only came back a half hour ago. I heard” 

 

Peggy walked towards her, slowly and then stopped “How have I never seen you at SHIELD?”

 

“I work on a completely different side to where you and Captain Rogers are based”

 

She raised her brows “So the protecting malarkey only takes place here?”

 

“Protecting was a strong word” she sighed “I just meant, looking out for you guys”

 

“We don’t need looking out for, we are perfectly capable of handling ourselves”

 

She held her hand up and said “I was just following orders” 

 

Peggy looked at her for a moment in silence, after biting her lip she then asked the question that had been burning into her brain “Is your real name Kate Shepard?”

 

Sharon bowed her head and sighed before shaking her head and said with her eyes still avoiding her “No”

 

“Then who the hell are you? Agent  _ Thirteen _ ” 

 

Her eyes met Peggy’s and after a moment of hesitation, she finally just said “My name is Sharon...Sharon Carter”

 

Peggy stared at her hard, her brows pinching together slightly “Carter? Is that supposed to be a coincidence?” 

 

“No. It’s not”

 

Peggy shifted her stance, with her arms still folded “I’m afraid I don’t follow”

 

Sharon leaned against the kitchen counter and after taking a breath she let out a small, brief yet still completely cryptic explanation “I’m your niece-well great niece to be exact”

 

“You can’t be serious”

 

Sharon didn’t argue, instead she went over to a drawer in the living room and pulled out a book, which was in fact a photo album. Holding it out in front of her “See for yourself. There is someone in there you may recognise” 

 

Peggy took the album from her, now filled with curiosity, she opened the book. She didn’t have to flick through many pages, the first one alone showed her someone she knew very well, someone she believed to have died in 1940. Michael, her brother. The sight of him made her breath get caught in her throat. 

 

He was with a woman, his wife? He had a ring as did she and the pair looked close, holding a baby in their hands. Sharon looked to Peggy “The baby. That’s my mother” 

 

Peggy’s head snapped up, her eyes prickling “What..Michael? How?” 

 

When Sharon didn’t answer straight away, Peggy got more impatient and stern with her words as her voice raised ever so slightly “ _ How _ ?” 

 

“It was discovered that he was a captive of the nazis, he was rescued” 

 

“When?”

 

Sharon shrugged “Not long after you and Steve went under” 

 

Peggy’s breath got caught again in her throat as she let out a distressed laugh. Dropping the album down on the counter and rubbing her forehead. All of this suddenly hitting her like a ton of bricks. She took a moment and tried to catch her bearings “Okay. Let me get this straight. My brother was alive the whole time? He lived a full life?”

 

Sharon nodded and tried to reassure her “With a loving family”

 

“I am his family” she said sharply “So why on earth was I not told? Why weren’t you honest about who you were?” 

 

Sharon ran her fingers through her hair “It all just happened so quick, Peggy. One minute you’re just some kind of fictional character for my entire life and the next you are here living and breathing. You believed Michael was dead for years before you went in the ice, Fury thought that it was best you didn’t know”

 

Peggy’s face dropped “Fury knew about this?”

 

“He’s the one that suggested I go undercover as Kate Shepard...because Michael  _ is _ dead now. And he thought it would be distressing of you to learn about it all”

 

“Believe me I would have much rather been told my brother died an old man rather than being killed in his prime in the war like I believed and lived with for many years including till this day” Peggy took a breath to try and keep calm “And you. Did I not have a right to get to know you? And clearly my niece who I now only know that I have. I woke up believing that Steve was the only family I had but apparently I have a whole bunch of Carter’s running around that I had no inkling of” 

 

Sharon sighed, with a genuine sad look in her eyes, she let out a heavy shrug “I don’t know what to say. I wanted to tell you I did. It’s just with this job I have had to claw my way into getting where I am and if holding off  _ this  _ got me the respect I wanted then, I’m sorry but I was willing to hold it off for it”

 

What Sharon was expecting was for Peggy to scowl at her for that, but Peggy’s expression actually softened and then slowly nodded. Because  _ that  _ she understood, she related to that. Peggy looked down to the floor and mumbled “Well, I know now don’t I?”

 

After a moment of silence she looked back up to Sharon and frowned “I suppose, I am just grateful in the end”

 

“Grateful?”

 

“Despite being lied to, I have just learnt that I do in fact have a family” 

 

Sharon gave her a tight smile and nodded “Yeah. You do, and they’d be so happy to meet you” 

 

Peggy finally let out a small smile “I would like that very much. On one condition” 

 

“Yeah?”

 

“No more secrets. You’ve laid all your cards down, yes?”

 

“Absolutely” 

 

“Good” Peggy strummed her fingers on the counter and looked down to album, then hearing Sharon say “I can take you to visit my mom. She’ll have a helluva lot more stories than I do about grandpa to tell you” 

 

It was funny, hearing her brother be called a grandpa when she didn’t think he was alive enough to become one, she smiled to her newly discovered niece “That’d be lovely. And I would very much like to get to know you and how you ended up becoming an Agent for SHIELD”

 

“That would be you’re doing” Sharon said, now feeling rather embarrassed. Never thinking in a million years when she was going through her training that she would ever be able to tell Peggy that, she shrugged “The stories from gramps as well as the legend they kind of made you inspired me” 

 

“Well, every generation should have a Carter kicking arse I suppose” Peggy stood up straight from leaning against the counter and raised her brows “I’ve took two generations on myself”

 

Sharon let out a small smile. Peggy looked to the time “Listen,  _ Sharon _ , as I’ve said I want to get to know you. But tonight, with Fury’s passing...I  _ have  _ to be there for Steve. We need somewhere to sleep it’s not safe staying in there-in fact is it safe for you to be staying in here?”

 

Sharon waved her hands “Yeah completely, to most people I’m just a nurse, including people like assassins...y’know you’re welcome to stay here” 

 

Peggy shook her head almost immediately “No it’s fine honestly” she wouldn’t want to increase the risk of them coming back here and hurting Sharon. Even when she was just simple Kate to her she wouldn’t have risked that “But I will see you soon, tomorrow even. As soon as this mess is cleared up”

 

Sharon gave her a tight smile once again “Sounds good” 

 

Peggy just gave her a warm look as she nodded and then dismissed herself from the apartment. Of all the outcomes she was imagining before entering there, that was the furthest from her expectations. 

 

Peggy got a text from Steve shortly after leaving Sharon’s apartment telling her he was done. She got in the car after briefly going to their apartment to grab some clothes for them and went on her way to pick him up. 

 

Steve got in the car and looked to her straight away “You hid it?”

 

“Of course”

 

“Where?”

 

“Back of the vending machine in the hospital behind a row of gum, should buy us time. Not many people enjoy Hubba Bubba”

 

Steve nodded, looking straight ahead as she put the keys in the ignition and began to drive off “Good move”

  
“Thank you”

 

“So” he sat back, making himself more comfortable and turned his head to her “How’d it go with the fake nurse?”

 

Peggy muttered a laugh under her breath and shook her head “You aren’t going to bloody believe it when I tell you”

 

“Tell me what?”   
  


Peggy looked at him for a moment before taking her eyes to the road. She soon explained everything to him, he of course already knew about Michael. She told him about him back in the war when they first started to get to know each other, he too thought he was long dead of course. It was a lot for him to wrap his head around. Hell the thoughts were still making her head spin and she’s the one this was happening to.

 

* * *

 

They talked about it all the way to the motel that they found just a few off where their apartment was but at a good distance to not be suspicious. It was cheap, which was good. Granted it meant it wasn’t going to be anything grand but they didn’t exactly care. Steve was still asking questions by the time they reached their room, Peggy dumped the duffel with their stuff in it on the bed and turned to him when he asked “So what? You’re going to meet the family?”

 

“ _ We  _ are going to meet the family”

 

She saw the sheepish look that suddenly came on his face, making her smirk and couldn’t help but tease “A seventy year relationship without meeting members of my family? If I didn’t know any better I would think you weren’t committed”

 

Steve rolled his eyes to her, he would try to get her back with not meeting his family. But he definitely had no remaining family members so he had to let her win this round like always. Steve arched his back “Let’s just get in bed, I’m exhausted”

 

“As am I” Peggy said as she took her shirt over her head and tossed it to the side as she grabbed the one she slept in that Steve bought her as a joke for her birthday. It was a sweater that just had the word ‘ _ Fossil’  _ across it in big bold black letters. He was lucky it was soft as hell else he would have got a slap. 

 

“Pierce wants to see me tomorrow”

 

“Just you I presume” Peggy muttered under her breath, she could read Alexander Pierce like a book, no matter how much people big him up she could see he was sexist given he tries to push Peggy out of the equation at any given chance. 

 

“I don’t really know”

 

“I do” she said, looking at him as she slipped on her grey cotton shorts, she appreciated him trying to prevent her feelings from getting hurt but he needn’t worry, she couldn't care less and that was the truth “Steve it’s fine. We don’t need to be a double act all the time”

 

“I like being a double act though” Steve said with a smirk, then adding with more seriousness “I like having you by my side. Feel like I function better”

 

Peggy gave him a warm smile, kneeling on the bed, she wrapped her arms around his neck as he stood in front of her “I’ll never be too far away, don’t you worry” she gave him a soft yet completely passionate kiss before getting off the bed and going into the bathroom. 

 

Stripped back in just a t-shirt and shorts, Steve jumped into bed with Peggy then quickly following him after turning off the lights. Peggy got underneath the duvet as Steve pulled it out for her to then cover her up again and scooped her up into his arms. Her head resting on his chest as her arm draped over his solid stomach. 

 

Peggy nuzzled her head against his chest as she got lost in thought for a moment. Thinking about how so much had happened tonight, a mixture of dreadful but also quite wonderful. And having Steve be by her side throughout it all at the end of the day just made her realise how grateful she was to have him. 

 

After staying silent in the dark for a moment, she finally said in a gentle, tired voice “Steve?”

 

He whispered back in a soft voice “Yeah, Peg?”

 

Peggy stroked his side with her thumb “I love you” she could practically hear the grin spread across his face just by the way she felt him hold onto her that little bit tighter. His lips brushed against her cheek before kissing her nose softly and responding “I love you too”

 

* * *

 

The next morning they went into work, put on their uniforms and went their separate ways as Steve went into what used to be Nick’s office but it seemed Pierce took that before the dust had the chance to settle. 

 

As he went off and dealt with that, Peggy paid a visit to Maria. She wanted to know if anyone had seen Natasha since last night, but Maria said that she hadn’t and she’s pretty sure she hasn’t been in the building since which was quite unusual because she was normally as punctual as Peggy was. 

 

“Where’s Rogers?”

 

“Currently having a one to one with Alexander Pierce”

 

Maria raised her brows and muttered as she looked down to her documents “He jumped into Nick’s grave quickly”

 

Peggy agreed but didn’t respond, instead she asked something else “Did you know about Sharon?” 

 

Maria looked to her and pulled her face before answering “Maybe a little. I’m sorry I just didn’t think it was my place to say” 

 

“No it’s fine, I understand that” 

 

She shrugged to Peggy and tried to put things on the lighter note “At least now you know you’ve got a family as well as Steve”

 

Peggy nodded “That is the main thing I suppose” 

 

As she looked at the clock, Maria did the same and then asked as she looked back to her “How long has he been in there?”

 

Peggy sighed “About five minutes, I can’t imagine he’ll be too long” 

 

She dropped her arms back down to her side and headed to the door, she turned to Maria before leaving “If you see Steve walk past, tell him I’ll be on the ground floor” 

 

Maria just nodded and Peggy left, she went to the ground floor to check there if Natasha has signed in at all, when she got there she ran into Sharon, who gave her an awkward smile. She wasn’t quite sure how to act in front of her now that the truth was out, so Peggy tried to make it as easy as possible for her with a kind smile on her face “Hello, Sharon” 

 

“Hi. Peggy. You find somewhere last night okay?”

 

“Oh yeah there’s plenty of motels flying around” Peggy said, waving her hand for her not to worry “It was fine enough. Steve’s been in a meeting with Pierce about things”

 

“I know I saw him a while ago heading into the office” 

 

“Did he say anything to you?”

 

Sharon shrugged and then couldn’t help but say in a light laugh “I don’t think he knew what to say or how to look at me”

 

Peggy rolled her eyes “He’s an awkward sod, I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you-”

 

Suddenly the man of the hour was seen quicker than she thought as he came flying from one of the top levels and landed on the floor with his shield breaking the fall. Broken glass sprinkling around him as if it were rain. Peggy just stared, completely stunned and traumatised. 

 

Clearly something was wrong and  _ clearly  _ he was in trouble which meant she was going to be too. Without looking at her, Peggy patted Sharon’s arm and quietly ordered “Go to your station”

 

“But-”

 

“Sharon go” 

 

As Sharon just obeyed and went off to her station as Peggy ran over to Steve, briefly putting her hand on his head to check him out “Are you alright?”

 

Steve let out deep breaths and nodded as he slowly got up onto his hands and knees, nodding to her as he put his hand on her arm “Fine…”

 

“What the hell is going on?”

 

Steve looked around and could tell that they didn’t have time, he looked to Peggy and shook his head “I haven't got time to explain, but you trust me?”

 

“Of course”

 

“Then just come with me” Steve asked, grabbing his shield with one hand and then grabbing her hand with the other. He took her to the garage but she still insisted on what was going on, as he handed her the shield and got on the bike he said “I just got jumped by the entire STRIKE team and some other agents”

 

“What!”

 

“Seems Fury was right, we have been compromised” 

 

There was suddenly a voice over from what sounded like Jasper Sitwell ordering for the gats to be closed so they had to be quick. Steve started the engine and they got on their way as quickly as possible. They saw the gates closing but he managed to speed up faster and fit through it just in time. 

 

A quinjet them came in front of them in attempts to stop them, after under her breath in context of what the fuck was going on, Peggy took the shield from her back and then took a chance by throwing it, aiming it perfectly and hitting the engine like she hoped it did. Steve turned his head to her briefly as he said “Take control”

 

“What!”

 

“Now!” Steve let go of the handles and Peggy quickly took hold of them to try and keep balance as Steve stood on the seat and launched himself off the bike, they were lucky she didn’t crash but he had faith in her. She carried on driving as Steve continued to damage the jet with the shield, she sped ahead and got out of the way for the jet to fall behind her and Steve landing in front of her. She let out a stiff breath as she gave him a stern look “That was bloody ridiculous” 

 

“Sorry. An impulse” 

 

Peggy slid back and allowed Steve to sit at the front of the bike again, putting the shield back on her back she said firmly as she put her arms back around his waist “Will you tell me what the hell is happening?”

 

“Yeah. When we get back to the motel” 

 

Peggy just sighed and rested her head against his back as he drove them to their crummy motel room. As soon as she got in, he explained best he could, but quite frankly he had no idea what was going on either “The way things are looking. SHIELD  _ has  _ been compromised, but the looks of things Alexander Pierce is head of it”

 

“What makes you say that? Did he say something?”

 

Steve sighed, closing his eyes for a moment he said as he stepped further into the room “C’mon, Pegs think about it” 

 

She turned and kept her eyes on him as he went onto say “I go to his office and he hounds me for answers on the last thing that Nick said to me. He had taken hold of that office already and he was....I don’t know but my gut says he’s behind this, the moment i step away after not giving him what he wants I get attacked? That was planned, Peggy. He brought me in so they could take me down”

 

“They want stick” Peggy said as though to herself, then looking to Steve and nodding as she spoke more clearly “The stick that Fury practically died for, that’s why they wanted to bring you in they want it. Whatever is on it must be life or death to SHIELD or Pierce or both” 

 

“We gotta go get it then”

 

Peggy nodded and then headed over to their bag. Both getting out more low-key wear than their uniforms that they were currently wearing. Once they were out, they dumped their stuff in her car but didn’t drive in it. That could easily be tracked, they have her plate on file.

 

* * *

 

They got a cab with the driver not luckily recognising them. Peggy asked for him to drive to the hospital, after paying their fee they quickly got out. Walking into the right ward, Peggy pushed Steve ahead “Go get it, I’ll make sure we haven't been tailed”

 

Steve made his way down the hall and Peggy subtly checked out, it seems they were in the clear. Peggy turned back and saw Steve’s confused expression which did not give her a good feeling, then Natasha came out of the shadows. Peggy watched as Steve turned to her and just stared before he grabbed a hold of her and pushed her into a room. 

 

Peggy groaned under her breath at him. Not the most discrete thing to do, she quickly made her way down the hall and into the room, shutting the door. Steve had Natasha against the wall “Where is it?” he asked sternly as he pulled his hood down. 

 

Peggy easily now put it together that Natasha had the USB.

 

“Safe” 

 

“Do better” 

 

Natasha’s brows pinched to him “Where’d you get it?”

 

“Why would I tell you?” Steve snapped. Natasha’s expression then dropped as the bulb went on in her head “Fury gave it to you why?” 

 

Peggy then walked over to them and asked her “What’s on it?”

 

“I don’t know”

 

Steve squeezed on her arms “Stop lying!” 

 

Natasha’s eyes quickly went back to Steve “I only act like I know everything, Rogers” 

 

“Bet you knew it was Fury who hired the pirates, didn’t you?”

 

Peggy’s head snapped to Steve. He forgot to mention that, he gave her a look to apologise for missing that out before looking back at Natasha who seemed briefly stunned that he knew that, she tried to her best to cover “Makes sense. Ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in so did you”

 

“I’m not gonna ask you again”

 

“Steve” Peggy whispered, taking a step more between them “Take it easy” she then looked to Natasha “And Natasha just tell us the bloody truth, we’ve had a long day”

 

She put her hand on Steve’s so he would let go of Natasha, which he then did once he calmed himself down. Natasha looked to them both and finally began to explain herself “I know who killed Fury. Most of the intelligence community don’t believe he exists the ones that do call him  _ The Winter Soldier _ . He’s been credited for over two dozen assassins in the last fifty years”

 

Not buying it quite yet, Steve nodded “So he’s a ghost story” 

 

Natasha then argued back by sharing them a story of a personal experience she had with the Winter Soldier, showing the scar on her hip as proof for the story. 

 

“Soviet slug no rifling...bye bye bikinis”

 

Peggy raised her brows and huffed “Yes, I bet you look awful in them now”

 

Natasha let out a tired smile and just dropped her shirt back down, after sighing she got back onto the story “Going after him is a dead end i know I’ve tried” she then showed the stick by holding it up before them “Like you said he’s a ghost story”

 

As he took it off her he said “Well we’re just gonna have to find out what the ghost wants”

 

“SHIELD are after you both, Maria called me” Natasha looked to Peggy “They’ve officially named you both fugitives” 

 

Peggy rubbed her forehead “Yes I gathered they would after Steve destroyed one of their jets...Natasha we’re going to have to ask a favour from you”

 

Natasha raised a brow “Work underground to clear your good name?”

 

Peggy grinned at her “If you would be so kind”

 

“Well seen as though it’s you” Natasha said, putting on a sigh. She nodded “Fine. I’ll help in anyway I can”

 

“Keep in contact with us, give us any updates but make sure if they check your phone which they may do seen as though we work together often wipe the messages completely” Peggy ordered. 

 

Natasha nodded to her “You got it”

 

“We’ll reach out to you when we need your help or if we’re coming back...right now we need to take this stick. Find out what’s on it and hide out until we figure things out” she said in direction to both Natasha and Steve. They both nodded again. 

 

“Good” Peggy concluded, she tugged on Steve’s sleeve “We better get moving” 

 

“Don’t worry.  _ I never saw you _ ” Natasha said in a dry tease, knowing that either one of them were going to say something along them lines. They both gave her a grateful look and then left the room and the hospital completely to try and find a computer.

 

* * *

 

The best place Peggy thought of for them to find a laptop to use was the mall. There were tons of computer stores that they could go on as customers to get their intel. By now the whole of DC was being covered by Rumlow and his men to look for the two of them so they had to be on high alert. 

 

They got up to the apple store and quickly got themselves on a Mac. 

 

Peggy then remembered something Natasha had told her on a phone call after they left the hospital “The drive has a level six homing programme so as soon as we boot up I wager SHIELD will know where they are” 

 

Steve looked around in his cap and fake glasses, still keeping alert “How much time will we have?”

 

“About nine minutes from…” she put the USB in “Now...I like those glasses by the way” 

 

All the files came up, Peggy shook her head “Fury must have been right about that ship, someone was trying to hide something” 

 

Steve looked down to the screen as Peggy said the drive has been protected, making it difficult for anyone other than the one who uploaded things onto it get access to the more juicy stuff.

 

“Can you override it?”

 

“Who are you talking to?” Peggy said with a smirk, she carried on moving her fingers across the keyboard so fast that Steve couldn’t keep up, suddenly they saw a worker for the store approaching them “Can I help you guys with anything?”

 

Peggy thought quickly and grinned as she wrapped her arms around Steve “Oh no, my husband and I were just looking at a  _ second honeymoon _ destination”

 

“Yeah. We’re married” Steve said awkwardly as he tried to act as casual as humanly possible.

 

“Congratulations, we’re you guys thinking of going?”

 

Steve looked down to the location the tracker was on and had no choice but to say “New Jersey” 

 

The Apple guy hummed and nodded, then he looked at Steve. Looked at him real hard and Steve suddenly froze and became more nervous, thinking their cover has been blown. He squinted at him and pointed to Steve “I have the  _ exact  _ same glasses”

 

“Gosh. You two are practically twins”

 

He then laughed “Yeah I wish” motioning his hands at Steve’s body “Specimen...if you guys need anything, I’ve been Aaron”

 

“Thank you” Steve said quietly before turning back to Peggy who had an amused look on her face as she shook her head, Steve looked to her “Second honeymoon?”

 

“Well I could have just said first given that we never actually went on one” Peggy said plainly as she kept her eyes on the screen, Steve looked down to his watch “Peg you said nine minutes”

 

“Stay calm...got it” they both stared at the location hard and looked to each other “Is that where I think it is?” 

 

Steve nodded “Think so”

 

Peggy looked back to the screen and nodded, then saying as she pulled the USB out “Trip down memory lane, let’s go” 

 

They quickly made their way out of the apple store and noticed that there were parts of Rumlow’s team “Standard tact team, behind, two across. Two coming straight at us, if they make us I’ll engage you-”

 

“Steve shut up and put your arm around me, laugh at something I’ve said”

 

“What?”

 

“Just do it”

 

Steve did as he was asked, he put his arm around her and bowed his head beside hers as he let out a convincing laugh, managing to go past the two that were coming towards them successfully, he looked around his shoulder “Nicely thought”

 

“You need to learn there are other options in getting out of things than violence” 

 

“Duly noted” Steve nodded, still with his arm around her, they needed to get out of here as quickly as possible. They went to the escalators that got them down to down to the bottom floor. 

 

Once being on the escalators, Peggy was stood in front of Steve and clocked Rumlow coming up on the one beside them. She bit her lip and then turned to Steve, he looked to her “What?”

 

“Come here” she said in a whisper, grabbing his jacket and pulling him close. She kissed him passionately, him not having a clue where this had come from, but then again she didn’t need a reason. PDA just wasn’t exactly like her, certainly not at stressing times. Steve put his hands on her waist and pulled her close as he sunk into it. 

 

After a moment, when Peggy knew Rumlow had passed, she pulled back. Steve’s eyes were still closed. She smirked and slapped his shoulder, he opened his eyes to her and laughed breathlessly “What was that about?”

 

“Well usually I don’t have a particular reason but…” she waited till they stepped off the escalator and then continued “Rumlow was coming up on the opposite, and public displays of affection make people feel uncomfortable”

 

Steve gripped to her waist and muttered as he pulled her close “Uncomfortable isn’t the word I’d use” 

 

“Course  _ you  _ wouldn’t” Peggy laughed. They made their way to the parking lot for the mall and with the slight guilt in the pit of their stomach, Peggy hot wired a car and they soon headed out. 

 

On their way to New Jersey and back to camp. A place they haven’t been in over seventy years. 


	3. Chapter 3

“Just once I’d like you to let me hotwire the car” Steve stated as he drove them towards their destination. 

 

“One day” Peggy said as she reached over and ran her fingers through the back of his hair, stroking it gently which was something she did often when she was the passenger and he never complained. 

 

“Does escaping to New Jersey count as finally getting a honeymoon then?”

 

Peggy hummed a laugh as she looked straight ahead “It isn’t exactly as relaxing as honeymoons go...and it may be considered nine months too late” 

 

Steve turned his head for a brief moment and pressed his lips against her wrist. She slid her hand down from his hair and rubbed his back before resting her hand back down on the side. He glanced to her “What is it?”

 

“Just all the lies” Peggy sighed “From so many people...you were right the only people we can trust is one another and that doesn’t do much good for us in this line of work” 

 

“Look, we get through this, we’ll figure it out we always do. Right?”

 

“And then what?” Peggy asked as she looked to Steve “We go back to how things were?”

 

“What else can we do?” Steve looked to her, he then smiled “You know damn well that if we moved away from this job for two minutes you would get restless” 

 

Steve slid his hand into hers, bringing it to his mouth and pressed his lips against the back of her hand before lowering it back down but still keeping hold of it “You feel shit right now but I promise it’ll be okay, we’ve walked away from worse”

 

Peggy looked to him “Yes...we have” 

 

“I mean going down with that plane, thinking we were going to die...now look at us” 

 

“You’re in the wrong line of business you should have become a motivational speaker”

 

Steve slapped her leg as he returned his hand onto the gear stick, after a moment of silence, Steve then suddenly asked her “Am I better kisser than i was before?”

 

“What?” Peggy giggled as she looked to him, not knowing where the hell this had come from, he looked to her and nodded “I’m serious”

 

“You were always a good kisser” 

 

“I don’t believe you” he laughed. 

 

“Well we could bring in the  _ first _ woman you kissed to ask her but she’s long dead now so”

 

“How many times, she kissed _me_ ” 

 

Peggy sat forward in her seat and looked to him, saying with a theatrical smile on her face as she briefly slapped his leg “How about we  _ don’t  _ have this argument again?” 

 

Steve just gave her a smile and huffed as he looked back to the road, Peggy’s face settled back to being warm, taking hold of his hand again “If there’s one thing I’m not it’s a liar” she grinned to him and said gently as she leaned forward to him “And you needn’t improve on  _ anything _ ”

 

She pressed her lips against his neck, her hand running from the front of his neck down to his chest. Her lips went from his neck to behind his ear and then jaw, her fingers fiddling with the opening of his t-shirt at the front of his chest. She then felt the car slow down before coming to a full stop on the side, she pulled back “Now just what are you doing?”

 

“This” Steve lunged forward, clashing his lips onto hers and putting his hand at her jaw, pulling her forward slightly. Peggy let out a surprised noise before then sighing out a sweet moan into his mouth. His hand went underneath her shirt and gripped onto her waist. 

 

When on duty, they were always professional. Well apart from the odd occasion but that was more when they were doing late night shifts just at HQ. But outside of work, their relationship in general was always rather heated, it was hard to keep their hands off of each other. Not just sex either, but just to hold each other. She would always curl up to him on the couch when watching TV or wrapping her arms around him from behind when he was cooking. 

 

And right now they weren’t technically on duty because  _ technically  _ they were on the run, and there was nothing she would like more than to take him in the backseat of this car but one thing was that they were technically  _ ‘borrowing’  _ the car and the second thing was the matter of SHIELD’s life and the legacy of those they loved were at stake. 

 

Peggy eventually pulled back “We have to get to that base. Time for this later”

 

Steve sighed with a defeated smile and sat back, Peggy pulled her shirt back down “You still a managed to cop a field” 

 

He raised his brows as he carried on driving “It’s just a shame you didn’t” 

 

Peggy smiled and leaned back over to him “About to”

 

“Yeah?” he laughed.

 

“Yeah” her hand flew to his crotch and took a hold for herself, her action making the car move sharply to the side as he briefly lost a sense of direction “Oops eyes on the road” 

 

Steve just looked to her and they both let out a laugh, she sat back in her seat and they carried on heading to the base, enough fooling around they were actually dealing with something serious. 

 

Ten minutes afterwards and they reached their old base, the base where Steve was trained by Peggy. Where they met. Their very first moments together was at this old place. Peggy continued to keep the tracker on her phone as they walked in, but like him, she wanted to take it all in. They hadn’t been here for  _ over  _ seventy years, they moved bases to London when in the war shortly after Steve’s transformation. 

 

They walked through the base some more, Peggy went up the stairs around the warehouse as Steve’s feet remained firmly on the ground, as she tried to get a signal she stopped as well as him as they came to the flagpole, Peggy grinned as she slowly lowered the phone and walked to the railing, dropping her hand on the top of his head, stroking his hair “Some memories there, huh?” 

 

“First time I impressed you”

 

“It was impressive” she muttered as she took her hand away from his hair and focused back on the phone as Steve said “S’why I did it. To get in the car with you”

 

“I know” 

 

Steve turned to her “You did?”

 

Peggy looked to him and smiled as she said simply “I said you were impressive, not subtle” 

 

Steve gently laughed and looked back to the flagpole as Peggy carried on walking slightly. Suddenly hearing the general from back in war call him, he then even saw him shout at his old self. Then he saw pre-serum Steve Rogers run right in front of him and stop, staring back at him. Like looking into the mirror of his past. A few moments later, the ghost ran away when being yelled at again by the voice in Steve’s memories. 

 

“Steve!”

 

Steve turned “You got a signal”

 

“No that’s a dead end” Peggy put the phone back in his jeans and then pointed over to a small base at the back “But remember this?” 

 

It took him a moment but then the ball dropped, Steve jogged over to her and the both of them walked over to the base. From knowledge with back in the war they knew this base was used for secretive things, using his shield, Steve bashed open the lock and they got inside. 

 

Walking downstairs, they saw that it was an office, changed quite a lot since the last time they saw it. Peggy found the light switch and quickly flipped it. The lights slowly came on and they saw that they were now standing in front of SHIELD. Where it started that is. Steve and Peggy just looked to each other before carrying on walking down the office, they went into the back where they saw pictures on the walls of the founders. 

 

Howard and Philips, but above that there were two separate pictures of Steve and Peggy which they certainly weren’t expecting to see, Peggy’s breath got caught in her throat “They really did everything for our honour didn’t they”

 

Steve looked to her when he heard the emotion in her face and took hold of her hand, giving it a comforting squeeze and a small smile once she looked to him, Steve took a breath through his nose and tried to lighten the mood “You look good”

 

Peggy let out a breathless laugh “Yes, I suppose I should be grateful they picked a good picture” she looked back to him and rubbed his back as she said softly “Come on” 

 

Steve did as she requested and they carried on walking, Steve suddenly heard a draft from behind the shelves and looked to Peggy “If you’re already working in a secret office…” he pulled the shelves back and revealed elevator doors “Why would you need to hide the elevator”

 

“Let’s find out, shall we?” Peggy walked towards the elevator and then took out her advanced Stark phone, scanning the prints on the keypad allowed them access and they were in. Peggy rested her head on Steve’s arm as they stood side by side in the elevator as it took them down to the real ground floor. 

 

“Could do with a good kip soon” Peggy mumbled as she continued to lean against him, feeling his shoulders bounce for a moment as he chuckled “Yeah, me too”

 

The doors opened and they walked out, confused as what in front of them was a computer room. Now to be considered a rather dated computer room but still for the times it would be been impressive “What on earth…” she mumbled in her breath as they walked further into the room.

 

They stepped onto the main platform in the room “Surely this can’t be the data point. All of this is now considered, well, ancient”

 

Steve shrugged “Maybe it’s hidden somewhere in here?”

 

Peggy’s eyes suddenly clocked onto a more modern USB port set on the desk of the main computer base, she walked over to it and took a chance by putting the USB stick in. All the monitors came alive around the room and files then appeared on the old computer in front of them. 

 

_ INITIATE SYSTEM  _ the computer read out aloud. 

 

Peggy put her hands on the keyboard and simply typed back  _ ‘YES’  _

 

As more things began to work, Peggy smirked “Shall we play a game” she turned as she heard Steve huff a small laugh and nod “I understood that reference” 

 

“That film scared the crap out of me I shan't be watching that again or the sequels”

 

“Natasha says they’re crap anyway” Steve said as he stood beside her. They were suddenly interrupted as a pixelated face came on the screen and suddenly a foreign and  _ familiar  _ voice spoke to them “ _ Rogers, Steven. Born nineteen eighteen _ ” 

 

The camera moved over to Peggy, who was now just as stunned “ _ Carter, Margaret born nineteen twenty one _ ” 

 

Peggy shook her head “What is this? A recording?”

 

“ _ I am not a recording,  _ _ fräulein _ _ , I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in nineteen forty five but I am”  _ a picture then appeared on the second screen and they knew full well now who they were  _ talking  _ to. 

 

Peggy looked to Steve “Zola”

 

Steve shook his head as he looked back to the screen “Can’t be. He’s been dead for years-”

 

“ _ Look around you. I have never been more alive. In nineteen seventy two I received a terminal diagnosis science could not save my body, my mind however, that was worth saving...on two hundred thousand feet of databanks. You are standing in my brain _ ”

 

“How’d you get here?’ Steve asked. 

 

“ _ Invited _ ”

 

Peggy thought for a moment, casting her mind back to every possible operations and projects she had read about in SHIELDs archives, then one came to her mind “Operation Paperclip, after the war, SHIELD recruited German scientists with strategic value...but…why would they hire him?”

 

“ _ Because they thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own _ ”

 

Steve quickly got defensive as he said sharply “Hydra died with the red skull”

 

_ “Cut off one head, two more shall take it’s place _ ” 

 

Peggy put her hands on the back of her head and cursed under her breath before Steve demanded proof from the machined enemy, which it soon did. Going through the ins and ours of hydra which they already knew pretty well. Peggy extremely well in fact considering she was there at the beginning with Philips. 

 

But then he showed them something neither of them knew, he showed more footage and talked in more cryptic wars.

 

“ _After the war, SHIELD was founded and i was recruited_ _and a new Hydra grew...a beautiful parasite inside SHIELD_ , _for seventy years Hydra has been secretly feeding crisis reaping war and when history did not co-operate. History was changed”_

 

Peggy shook her head, taking a step forward “No. No that’s not possible, SHIELD would have seen you coming, they would have stopped you, Howard-”

 

_ “Accidents will happen”  _

 

Peggy’s eyes widened as she saw the photographs of Howard lying dead in his car, with the Winter Soldier being connected by Zola flashing a picture of him, her eyes filled as she cried in a whisper “He was murdered” 

 

She looked to Steve and gripped onto his jacket “Steve he was murdered”

 

Steve put his arm around her waist and brought her close. 

 

“ _ Hydra created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice freedom to gain it’s security once purification process is complete, Hydra new world order with arise...we won. Your deaths amount to the same as your lives. Zero sum”  _

 

Not wanting to hear anymore for both of their sakes, Steve lost his temper and hit the screen, breaking the glass and shutting it down. Peggy put her hand on his back an arm as he took a breath, but Zola soon returned on another screen. 

 

“What’s on this drive?”

 

“ _ Project insight requires insight so I wrote an algorithm _ ”

 

“What kind algorithm?” Peggy asked in a harsh tone, stepping to the side from behind Steve “What does it do?”

 

“ _ The answer to your question is fascinating unfortunately you shall be too dead to hear it _ ”

 

Suddenly they heard iron doors close up on the elevator, Steve launched his shield at it in attempts to stop it from closing but he didn’t succeed. It shut tight and bounced back to him, Peggy’s app then went off “We have a bogey, short range ballistic...thirty seconds maximum”

 

“Who fired it?”

 

Peggy frowned to him “SHIELD…”

 

“ _ I am afraid I have been stalling. Admit it, it’s better this way. We are, all of us. Out of time”  _

 

Steve ripped open a floor vent, putting his hand on Peggy’s back to get her in. His main concern was getting her down to safety, no time to even worry about himself, he didn’t care about himself, only her. Just as she was about to jump down, the missile that was sent landed in the building causing a large explosion. Steve grabbed hold of Peggy as tight as he could and lunged forward with her down the vent. 

 

He held his shield over their heads as the building fell around and  _ on top  _ of them. Keeping their eyes on each other the entire time, her hands gripped so tight onto his jacket that her knuckles went white. Steve didn’t know what to do or say, he just pressed his lips hard against her forehead as he did his absolute best to shelter her. Something then hit him hard and they fell down, no longer being protected and wedged between two fallen walls. 

 

Peggy may have serum in her that made her run just as fast as him and even be physically enhanced that she and Steve’s development was in the same pattern. But the dose Howard tried out on her did not give her  _ insane _ super strength like Steve, when she took a blow such as the one she just took, she took it more like a regular human. 

 

Steve however was able to recover better, he wheezed from the dust just as much, but he managed to pick himself up, pushing the concrete walls apart, he turned to Peggy who was no longer conscious. He took her in his arms and made their way out, he couldn’t lie her down on the ground to check on her because when he stepped out he saw quinjets coming over and fast. He raced away as quickly as he could, out of the gates. 

 

He put Peggy in the back of the truck and drove off, but he went off road into the woods for a moment. He couldn’t focus on driving till he knew she was okay. Steve got out of the front and then carried Peggy out of the back. He opened up the back of the truck and laid her down as he jumped up beside her. 

 

“Pegs” he said gently, putting his hand to her cheek “Come on”

 

He bent down and kissed her collarbone. She was breathing so there was no need to panic about that, she was just knocked out, so he lightly shook her and firmly tapped his hand down on the truck beside her ear to try and wake her more, eventually she came round, winching at first from her head hurting but still she was awake. Steve let out a sigh of relief and buried his head in the crook of her neck, he was worried she had a concussion because that would have made things a whole lot harder. 

 

Peggy wrapped her arms around his neck when she came back to reality, sinking her fingers into his hair “Are you okay?” she whispered. 

 

“Yeah I’m fine now that you are” he said as he pulled back and gave her a gentle look “Just would’ve been hell if we had to go to a hospital with being fugitives and all” 

 

Peggy let out a groggy laugh before kissing him. Steve put his hand on her waist and after a few moments, pulled back from the kiss “Are you okay?”

 

“Head is slightly aching but other than that I’m fine. I passed out then?”

 

“Yeah, I think you whacked your head off something when we fell” Steve predicted as he ran his fingers through the side of her hair “Should wear off within a few hours”

 

“Oh you’re a doctor now?” Peggy teased in a mumble. It then suddenly fell silent as they just looked at each other, Peggy took in a deep breath and when she went to speak again, her voice was more cracked “It’s all been lies”

 

Steve sighed as he rested beside her “I know”

 

“Howard...he was assassinated. By the same man who killed Fury and apparently this happened because it had grown right beneath everyone's noses”  

 

“I should have killed Zola there and then on that train when I had the chance” Steve growled, looking down at the floor as he cast his mind back “I wanted to kill him so much cause he caused Bucky’s...but I didn’t because...I was an idiot”

 

Peggy quickly propped herself up on her elbow and faced him, putting her hand on his cheek as she shook her head at him “It isn’t your fault. None of this is your fault Steve and don’t you ever think that it is”

 

He took his eyes to her as she repeated more firmly “ _ Ever _ ”

 

They heard shouting come from the base further down, Steve sighed and muttered as he sat up properly “We better get on the move”

 

“To where is the question”

 

Steve just shrugged “I don’t know but we can’t stay here, we just drive till something comes to us” it wasn’t exactly their greatest plan but right now it was all they had. Steve got down first and held his hand out for her as she was likely to still feel a little dizzy. 

 

They got in the car and went back out on the road to drive. They returned the car back to the shopping mall as promised. They made their way to Newark by bus where they could then get a train back to DC, thankfully they weren’t noticed as Steve booked the tickets through the machine to the side instead of going to the ticket office. 

 

The train would take just over three hours which would allow them to get some sleep, not at the same time, they had to keep a lookout in case people saw them. Luckily the train they got on was fairly empty and they sat at the very back away from everyone else. As soon as they sat down, Steve put his arm over Peggy’s shoulder and pulled her close so she could rest her head on him. 

 

She closed her eyes but didn’t sleep, she just wanted to rest them for a little while. Gripping onto him tight at his waist “Did you love me on sight?”

 

Steve smiled and pressed his lips against the top of her head for a moment “You know I did”

 

Peggy looked up to him “I know I just feel like I need to distract myself”

 

“Peggy…”

 

“Steve, please” Peggy whispered, gently raising her brows to him and cocked an eyebrow. Steve let out a breath and brushed his fingers through her hair “Remember that time you spilt tea all over my shirt as an excuse for us to hook up in the basement?”

 

Peggy mumbled a laugh and grumbled “You were hardly going to pursue it, you were always too nervous” 

 

“You weren’t and it was hot” 

 

“I remember that correctly” Peggy mumbled as she looked down to her hands

 

“I meant the tea” Steve pulled her closer by the waist and just letting out a small laugh before looking out the window, she stroked his palm with her fingertips “We do need a holiday after this, I wasn’t kidding when I said it”

 

Steve thought this would be the best route to go down in the distraction method, as he continued to stroke her hair, he nodded “Okay. Where? And don’t say New Jersey”

 

Peggy let out a light, exhausted laugh, she shrugged as she settled herself more against Steve’s body “We never had the chance for me to take you through England. The  _ real  _ england that is, not the stuffy base we were in for god knows how long” 

 

“You know what. I’m actually going to hold you to that offer”

 

“Good” she whispered, sitting up more and putting her hand on the cheek furthest from her to pull him close “It gives us something to look forward to”

 

Steve gently put her hand on her forearm as she brought his head to hers and gently kissed him, then quickly deepening it before pulling away after a few long moments, his arms tightened around her more as he whispered “You try and get some sleep, sleep off your headache”

 

He gave her a soft smile “I’ll keep my eyes open” 

 

Peggy nuzzled her head back against his shoulder and closed her eyes. Steve held onto her hand as it draped across his stomach, his thumb softly rubbing against the gold band on her finger. He pressed his lips against her forehead and then just rested his head against hers, but he didn’t go to sleep. He kept watch as he said, if she woke up and he wasn’t she would throttle him.

 

* * *

 

The sun was up by the time they got to DC, barely that is. When stepping off and continued to lay low, Peggy looked around once they got out of the train station “We can’t stand around for long. Look at us, we’re covered in dirt from the rubble” 

 

Steve nodded, he already had an idea where the could go, he just hadn’t told her yet because he was well aware that she would tell him not to be so ridiculous. Not that he didn’t value her opinion, it’s just that they didn’t have time for an argument right now. He took her to the subway and got on, she had no idea where they were going and when she did ask he just said she  _ would see _ . 

 

It was when she saw the registration plate on the car parked outside that she knew where they were, her head snapping to him, then pulling his arm with her hand still in his “You’re ridiculous. Sam Wilson?”

 

“He’s an ex militant-”

 

“Exactly,  _ he  _ chose to leave this life” 

 

Steve turned to her “You got any better ideas? I’m all ears” 

 

Peggy opened her mouth to argue but then quickly got stuck, they couldn’t go to the friends they had at SHIELD, not even ones that have been away such as Tony. That would just be adding to the trouble, she just sighed and rolled her eyes before dropping her hand out of his and walking toward Sam’s, Steve smirked and then walked after her. 

 

She stood there with her arms folded, still not being too happy. Steve knocked on the door and didn’t have to wait long before Sam opened the door and looked at them, very confused by them being both on his door step and looking the way they were looking “Hey guys”

 

Steve sighed “We’re sorry about this. We need a place to lay low”

 

Peggy then decided to contribute to Sam helping them seen as though they were already here now “Everyone that we know are trying to kill us” 

 

Sam looked at her for a few considerable seconds, clearly now worried, he looked back to Steve for a moment “Not everyone...c’mon in”

 

Peggy raised her brows “Sam are you sure?”

 

“Yeah. Can’t let you guys get killed, can I? Come in and clean yourselves up”

 

As Steve and Peggy stepped inside, Steve couldn’t help but tease “Why? We look like a mess or something?”

 

Sam huffed a small laugh and then pointed down the hall “I got a guest room down there. You guys can lay low in here for as long as you need”

 

“We owe you” Peggy said as they started walking down the hall, then hearing Sam call “Just gotta tell me what the hell is going on later, that’ll do, Peggy”

 

She got him a smile over her shoulder and then walked into the guest room. As soon as they did, Steve dropped his hooded jacket down on the bed and his shirt too, she looked to him and couldn’t help but laugh “You’re bloody filthy” 

 

“Wait till you look in the mirror” he teased as he pinched her waist, she swatted his hand away “Get in the shower”

 

“Well I was gonna do ladies first”

 

Peggy nodded “Well I shall let you pass on being a gentleman right now because I take longer than you anyway” 

 

Steve rolled his eyes at her and just nodded, taking off his vest as he walked into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Peggy looked around the room, just being nosey and looked around even though there was nothing to really look at, it was just a simple blue room. 

 

Peggy took her jacket off and threw it on the bed before running her fingers through her hair, she could feel the grit in her hair, some going in her fingernails which she frowned at as she looked down to her now rather dirty fingernails. She put her hands on her hips and then looked over to the bathroom where the shower had steamed everything up. She bit her lip and then smirked, she pulled her shirt over her head as she walked towards the bathroom. Well, they were married after all. 

 

Steve was busy scrubbing himself with the soap in the shower that he jumped a little when he felt her hands touch his back, Steve turned to her and laughed “This is a surprise” 

 

Peggy grinned and shrugged as she wrapped her arms around his neck, bare chest pressing against bare chest “Well I realised that if we took showers separately we would be wasting Sam’s water” she kept her eyes on him as she kissed him and then teased as she stroked his hair “And we can’t be too greedy”  

 

Steve smiled and shook his head, quickly muttered an  _ ‘uh-huh’  _ before she took his lips with her own once again. Steve bent down with his arms still wrapped around her tightly and lifted her off her feet, her legs wrapped around his waist. Her back pressed against the wall of the shower. His hands gripped firmly onto her waist as he continued to kiss her. 

 

Peggy’s hand went further down his body, she took hold of him and quickly put him inside her. Their breaths getting caught in the back of their throats before pressing their lips back together. Peggy letting out a stiff moan into his mouth as her nails dug into his bare back, he kissed her neck as she held onto him tighter. She arched her neck as his lips pressed against it, her hands clenching in his hair as she bit her lip, she knew she couldn't be too load. Which was why she let out her noises when her mouth was covered by his. 

 

After their  _ time  _ in the shower, they got out more refreshed and safe to say, much more satisfied. Peggy grabbed her black vest that she wore under her long sleeved shirt and put it on as she redressed herself. Steve then the same, after using the bathroom, he walked to the door frame and looked to Peggy as she sat on the bed and tried her hair with just a towel.

 

Steve leaned against the frame “You okay?”

 

“After  _ that _ ” Peggy laughed quietly, but Steve could tell there was something underneath. Steve tossed the hand rag to the side in the sink and then walked over to her, he sat on the opposite bed facing her and took hold of her hands “Come on. Talk. Heart to hearts after sex is always good therapy”

 

Peggy hummed as she let out a small smile and then looked down to their hands, she sighed deeply through her nose and slowly shook her head “Honestly, darling, as much as I appreciate you trying to take my mind off it” she looked up as she set her back straight, still holding onto him “I can’t shake what was said out of my head” 

 

“Which part?”

 

“All of it” she said simply, looking back to him and his sad puppy dog eyes. 

 

Peggy just shrugged to him “When we woke up from the ice and we started working with SHIELD I really thought we were working in a better world, that what we did in the war may have helped it become a better world and the work we were doing now was carrying that on...but what does this all mean now? We’ve been Hydra all this time?”

 

Steve shook his head, sitting forward and squeezing her hands “No. We’re not Hydra”

 

“That’s what it feels like” she said, getting slightly teary eyed “How could we not have seen it?”

 

“You mean how could you not have seen it”

 

She stared at him, to which he then shrugged and said in a light hearted manner “You’ve always been too hard on yourself, Peggy. You always feel like you have to be on the ball and know everything, and I don’t say that as if it’s a bad thing because it’s not. It’s just pure dedication. But you’ve been played, we all have. The thing is for you, that’s more of a bitter pill to swallow”

 

“And what about you?”

 

“I’m shocked of course. And like you it’s been running through my mind but I was just a guy in a suit following orders. Think you’re taking it harder because you used to be the one giving them out. But that was before all this, Peg” 

 

He was right there, she was over thinking this too much perhaps. Mixing up the war with their current lives. Which was something that they couldn’t be blamed for it was all one big mess. But she followed the rules like him nowadays. Steve then quickly added on “Even Nick who was giving out the damn orders didn’t even know. So stop beating yourself up with this. All we can do now is go forward”

 

“And try to take them down?” she said with some self doubt, but still he nodded “That’s exactly what we’re going to do...or die trying”

 

Peggy huffed a small laugh and muttered “Till death us do part” 

 

“And you can’t take that back” Steve raised his brows to her and she let out another small laugh. Peggy sighed in a more lighter tone “We quite literally died for nothing you are aware of that?” 

 

“As long as I die with you I don’t care”

 

Peggy broke out a smile to him and teased “You say the sweetest things to me, Steven Rogers” 

 

Steve let out a breathless laugh and put his hand to her cheek “And I mean it”

 

“I know that’s why I married you” 

 

Steve leaned over the gap between them and pressed his lips gently against hers, stroking her jaw with his thumb as he did so. Peggy pressed her forehead against his and looked to him with a smile “Thank you”

 

“For what?”

 

“Keeping me sane” she whispered, giving him another soft quick kiss. She then pulled him for an embrace, pulling him down on the bed, letting out gentle giggles as they did so and then just held each other for a few moments longer. Getting things off her chest to him certainly made her feel better because he always came to be the voice of reason, she couldn’t help but feel like he got that from her. 

 

They sat up when they heard Sam knock on the door before opening it and popping his head in “I made breakfast...if you guys...eat that sort of thing” he walked out only to come back in again with some clothes in his hand and tossed them on the bed that Steve was previously sat on “Give those a try, man”

 

“Thank you, Sam”

 

Sam then looked to Peggy and shrugged “Sorry, Peggy. Believe it or not I got no women’s clothes in my closet”

 

Peggy let out an airy laugh and shook her head as she rubbed Steve’s back “Don’t worry about it” 

 

He just nodded to her and left them to it, Peggy slapped Steve on the back as she stood up “Get those on”

 

Steve grabbed the clothes and put them on as promptly as possible before joining Peggy in the kitchen with Sam. Steve sat at the head of the table whilst Peggy stood for a moment from grabbing her cup of tea that Sam kindly did for her “The question here is who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike? I mean it’s fairly obvious”

 

Steve nodded as he lowered his arm down “Pierce” 

 

“And he just so happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the bloody world” Peggy muttered bitterly as she looked down to her tea, then hearing Steve say “He’s not working alone Zola’s algorithm was on the lumarion star” 

 

Something then clicked in Peggy’s brain, looking up from her beverage and then over to her husband “So is Jasper Sitwell” 

 

Steve looked to her, she raised her brows and added “I always felt he was dodgy”

 

“You felt everyone was dodgy”

 

“Clearly for good reason”

 

Steve shook his head and focused to getting back on track with the current situation at hand “The question is how do the two most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD agent in broad daylight” 

 

Before Peggy could say anything, Sam beat her to it “The answer is, you don’t” he slapped a file down on the table that drew both Steve and Peggy’s attention. Steve took hold of it and rose from his chair “What’s this?”

 

“Call it a resume” Sam said as he stood back. Steve and Peggy huddled together and read the file, Peggy raised a brow and looked to her “You did all this? Some of these missions even I’ve heard of”

 

Sam just nodded, Steve held up the photo “This Riley?”

 

Sam again just nodded, saying in an almost whisper “Yeah” he then shook his head and reached over for the main file “It’s this that you might be interested in”

 

Steve grabbed the file and opened it up. The machinery that Sam had used overseas was nothing he or Peggy had seen before, Steve smirked “I thought you said you were a pilot”

 

“I never said pilot” Sam laughed, now looking very confident. Steve shook his head “I can’t ask you to do this Sam”

 

“Steve’s right we’ve already asked too much by coming into your home, you got out for a good reason-”

 

“Aw come on guys. Captain America and Agent Carter need my help! There’s no better reason to get back in”

 

They would argue more, but truth be told they needed all the help they could get. Steve looked to Peggy, who just nodded as approval. He closed up the file to hold it up “Where can we get our hands on one of these things?”

 

“The last one’s at fort meade...behind three guarded gates and a twelve inch steel wall” to Sam it sounded difficult. 

 

But Steve looked to Peggy and she just shrugged like he had just described the most simply task they have received in a while. He gave her a warm look, he loves it when she gets cocky. Steve looked back to Sam and shrugged as he put the file back down “Shouldn’t be a problem”

 

“For real?” Sam laughed. 

 

Steve just nodded and pointed to Peggy “You should see her scale a wall”

 

Peggy took the rest of her tea as if it were a shot and nodded as she grabbed her jacket and quickly said “And soon you will do. Come on gentlemen spit spot. We have a job to do”

 

Same they followed her, Sam just looked to Steve. 

 

A look that told him that he was the luckiest guy on this whole damn earth, but of course, Steve already knew that. 


	4. Chapter 4

Sam and Steve stood from the fort at a good enough distance, Sam looked down to the time on his phone whilst Steve just stood there completely relaxed. Sam looked to Steve “You think she’ll be much longer?”

 

Steve shook his head with a confident look on his face “Nope”

 

“How can you be so damn sure, man?”

 

“Cause she’s here”

 

Sam’s head snapped to Peggy who came over to them with the bird costume in her hand. It was a good thing the wings folded up because of not they would have had some serious trouble “Damn that was actually pretty fast”

 

Peggy nodded and handed it over to Sam “It’s actually surprisingly light” she then just carried on walking and they followed her back to the car. Sam put the suit in the trunk and got back in the driver's seat, as he did. Steve looked to him “You think you’ll be alright flying it?”

 

“Aw yeah. Like riding a bike”

 

* * *

 

They located Jasper Sitwell soon enough, he was at the Occidental restaurant, having a meeting with Senator Stern who no doubt was now also seen to be a member of Hydra. The plan was for Sam to go and sit at the cafe facing the joint whilst Steve and Peggy laid low in a building across the street with a sniper that Steve managed to swipe before Peggy got the suit. Peggy looked through the lens of the sniper as she had her finger resting firmly against the trigger and waited, she waited in seeing the look on Sitwell’s face after answering the call that was hacked by Sam. He was looking around and soon locked his eyes onto Sam. 

 

They could hear their conversation as Steve bugged into the call with his own phone. 

 

_ “That tie looks really expensive and I’d hate to mess it up”  _

 

There was the cue, Peggy aimed the sniper at Sitwell’s chest as he looked down and saw the red dot sitting nicely on his tie. She saw how his forehead began to sweat, his next swallow being heavy and packed with nerves as he looked over to Sam. 

 

_ “Who’s going to be waiting for me?”  _ Sitwell asked. 

 

_ “That’s a surprise”  _ Sam said simply, then hanging up the phone, standing up and heading to the direction he ordered Sitwell to go in before, Peggy’s sniper followed him all the way around the buildings, Sam parked the car in a spot that was still in range for her. And when he got in. That’s when Steve and Peggy quickly made their way out of the building and over to the car. 

 

Peggy got in the back next to Sitwell as Steve went in the front, she looked to him “Agent Sitwell, so lovely to see you again”

 

Sitwell’s head snapped from Peggy to Steve “C-Captain...Agent Carter” when looking back to Peggy, she just put her finger to her lips and raised a brow as she quietly made a shushing noise.

 

Sam turned on the engine and they went for a little drive, not too far though. Just down a few blocks. Steve grabbed Sitwell by the collar as he and Peggy took him all the way up onto a rooftop of a building to get their answers out of him. 

 

“Tell me about Zola’s algorithm” Steve demanded as Sitwell hurried to his feet and put back on his glasses  and denied “Never heard of it”

 

“What were you doing on the lumarion star?”

 

“I was throwing up I get sea sick” he went so far back that he went to the edge of the building. Steve grabbed hold of him by the jacket, threatening his life by keeping him tipped over the edge ever so slightly. 

 

“Is this little display to insinuate that you’re gonna throw me off the roof? Cause it’s really not your style, Rogers”

 

Steve stared at him and then nodded “You’re right” he took his hands from Sitwell’s jacket and put them on his arms, saying in a calmer voice “It’s not” he looked Sitwell back in the eyes and raised his brows “That would be my wife’s” 

 

Steve stepped to the side and before Sitwell could blink, Peggy’s foot pressed against his chest and he went over the building. Screaming for dear life. 

 

They stood there for a moment before Peggy quickly suggested “What about that place that Tony mentioned going to...Em... _ Am _ -”

 

“Amsterdam” Steve nodded “The one with the prostitutes in the windows and stuff”

 

“It sounds interesting at least” Peggy said in a breathless laugh. 

 

“Yeah. I’m not ready for that” 

 

Suddenly, Sitwell’s screams became louder and closer again as Sam brought him back up. They both just wanted to scare Sitwell but also test out the suit. Steve and Peggy walked over to Sitwell who was lay on the middle of the roof, catching his breath. 

 

He quickly held his hand up “Zola’s algorithm is a programme! For choosing insights targets”

 

Steve looked down to him “What targets?”

 

“You. A TV anchor in Cairo the other secretary defends a high school valedictorian Iowa City...Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, your wife here-anyone who’s a threat to Hydra now or in the future”

 

Peggy then pried “How could it know?”

 

To which Sitwell just laughed and then said as he looked to her “How could it not?” he slowly stood “The twenty first century is a digital book. Zola taught Hydra how to read it” he saw how they weren’t getting it “Your bank records. Medical histories, voting patterns, emails, phonecalls your damn SAT scores. Zola’s algorithm evaluates people’s past to predict their future” 

 

Steve looked to him sternly “What then?” when Sitwell didn’t answer, Steve took a step forward and asked harder “What then?”

 

“Then the inside helicarrier scratch people off the list. A few million at a time”

 

Peggy’s face dropped, she suddenly felt sick to the very pit of her stomach. Mumbling “Oh my god” as she turned away and looked out into the city “They want to wipe the slate clean” 

 

She just looked to Steve who was stuck on what to say, Sam being the same. Peggy rubbed her lips together as she looked to Sitwell “Sam. Would you escort Agent Sitwell back to the car, please?”

 

Sam just did as he was asked and grabbed Sitwell, taking him back down the more appropriate way. Steve turned to her “What do we do?”

 

“Not panic will be a start” she said in attempts to calm both of them down. She quickly tried to think best she could “Okay. We find out from Sitwell when they plan to do this. With him now under our captive so to speak we can use him. With him we can worm our way back into SHIELD. And we can stop it”

 

“What about Sharon?”

 

“They’ll be on her tail enough no doubt, the same with Natasha and Maria. I can’t put their lives at risk for us...but Sitwell’s? I’ll happily do that to his” 

 

Steve gave her a gentle look and nodded as he gave her arm a brief yet tender rub “Okay. Good plan” 

 

Peggy just gave him a nod and then walked to the door that led them down the building, with Steve of course trailing behind her and trying to keep up. Sitwell was in the back once again, and Peggy joined him. 

 

Sam turned her head to them and asked as his eyes flicked back and forth “So guys, we got a plan?”

 

Steve nodded “Agent Sitwell here is gonna be our little keypass back into SHIELD” 

 

Sitwell’s mouth opened to argue back before Peggy shrugged and simply stated “Unless you want to go back onto that rooftop and get thrown off it again  _ this  _ time without Mr Wilson catching you?”

 

Sitwell just swallowed thickly as his breath shook, he just shook his head and sat back into the chair before agreeing to do it as he looked out of the window. Sam got the car underway and took the car onto the freeway. 

 

Sitwell told them when Pierce was planning to launch project insight and now when thinking about things, they didn’t have much time. Peggy leaned forward whilst Steve and Sam had a conversation “Insight is happening in sixteen hours, gentlemen, don’t we think we are cutting it rather short?”

 

“I know we’ll use him to bypass the DNA scans and access the carriers directly”

 

Whilst Peggy approved and was rather impressed by the idea, Sitwell was not “What? Are you crazy? That is a terrible terrible idea”

 

There was a sudden thud on the roof of the car, as if someone had jumped on it, before they knew it, the window beside Sitwell was smashed and a metal arm came and grabbed him, pulling him out of the car and throwing him in the highway causing him to get hit by a moving truck. Sam quickly sped up the car with no hesitation. Peggy saw the mystery figure move back onto the roof. This was the same man who killed Fury, there was no doubt. Suddenly a shot was taken through the roof, nearly hitting her but just missed. 

 

Peggy wasted no time and climbed to the front seat, getting herself to Steve’s lap and quickly pulling his head into her neck as a shot was taken to them she then put her foot on Sam’s shoulder and pushed him to the side slightly as another shot was took. Ultimately she had just saved their lives before they even had the chance to realise it. Steve hit the break, causing the man to get thrown and land on the ground in front of them. And Peggy’s assumption was right. It was  _ The Winter Soldier. _

 

He stared at them through his dark shades. His entire face apart from his forehead was covered. Peggy pulled out the gun they had from the glovebox and aimed but before she could shoot. The back of their car was rammed from the back by a land rover, causing her to drop it and not having time to scramble for it as the car was being pushed now, Sam having zero control. No matter how hard he tried, the winter soldier soon jumped back up onto the room.

 

Peggy looked to Steve and said in a breath “Hold onto my waist, tight”

 

Steve did as she asked and gripped to her, allowing her to have the security to reach for the gun and grab it, the winter soldier reached in and ripped out the steering wheel from the car, she quickly aimed up to the ceiling of the car and took shots but he already jumped over, this bastard was quick. Sam continued to keep his foot on the accelerator. But the car rammed them again. Steve thought fast. He gripped onto his shield as the car went to the side of the the freeway, about to flip. He gripped harder onto Peggy “Hang on!”

 

As she tightly held onto him, Steve moved his hand and grabbed Sam’s shirt, pulling them all out just before the car flipped and they landed as securely as possible with the shield and the car door breaking their fall. As they skimmed across the freeway, Sam fell behind but wasn’t hurt. Steve and Peggy looked to the car and saw more Agents of what they now assumed was Hydra get out. Steve took his hand from her back as they quickly got up. 

 

The winter soldier getting a grenade launcher and firing to them both. Steve didn’t even hesitate when he pushed Peggy to the side and hid behind his shield to take the hit, flying off the freeway to the street below. Peggy cried his name under her breath and ran to the edge to see where he went. But before her mind registered what she was seeing, shots were taken, causing her to duck behind a car as quickly as possible. Then deciding to take some shots of her own. 

 

Another grenade was launched to her and she jumped to the next lane in the highway. She managed to avoid being hit by the cars and then when he launched another, a car shielded her but did cause her to go over the edge. Luckily she landed just fine. She started to run towards the bus where Steve was, seeing the shadow of the soldier waiting from up above. He wasn’t waiting for her, he was waiting for Steve. But she wasn’t going to let that happen. She took the spare gun she had from her high boots out and took shots at the winter soldier once she got a good enough view of him to delay any harm he would cause to both the public and to Steve. The exchange of bullets went back and forth between the two for some time, until she had to run and trust that Steve was already out of that bus. It wasn’t long till she saw that he was. 

 

With Sam covering him Steve then too ran further down the street to clear the winter soldier from it. Peggy got a shot first, after tricking him with a pre recorded message. She jumped from behind him, taking a move from Natasha’s book that she had watched her do many times and wrap her legs around his head and proceed to try and choke him out. And though she was doing fine for a few long seconds. He threw her off of him and launched her into a car causing her to fall on the floor but slide underneath the car and make a run for it. 

 

She ran down the streets and ordered people to hide, she ran and ran until she felt a bullet hit and go right through her shoulder. Peggy fell to her knees and groaned with amounts of pain, pressing her back against a car and taking a breath. He suddenly came behind her and aimed. 

 

“Peggy!” Steve called to make his presence known to the winter soldier more than hers. He charged at him before a shot could have been taken and then it was his turn to have a round with the soldier. As she heard them fight. Peggy got herself on her feet, still holding her shoulder, she looked around and tried to see if she could find anything that she could use to help Steve. 

 

Though she could see that he was handling himself well, this assassins fighting pattern and skill was almost flawless. Peggy suddenly saw the grenade gun that he had been using, giving it a quick check it had one more left in it barrell. 

 

She grabbed hold of it and as she did, she heard Steve say “Bucky?”

 

Peggy quickly looked up, letting his words sink in, she then spun around and saw that the winter soldier's mask was now gone. Holy shit. 

 

She didn’t understand how or why but there was no mistaking it. It was in fact Sergeant James Buchanan Barnes. The man she had fought in a war with, but most importantly he was Bucky, the best friend of her husband. But though his face looked like him, his expression said something entirely different. It was cold and plain. 

 

Bucky simply replied with “Who the hell is Bucky?”

 

In shock, Peggy didn’t even have time to raise her gun as she saw Bucky raise his to Steve but Sam luckily got there in time and hit him from behind as he now had his suit on. Peggy snapped out of it but saw that Steve hadn’t, and Bucky still appeared to be cold. He wasn’t the man they knew, she could tell that much. This time when he went to take a shot, Peggy wasn’t in shock to hesitate. She didn’t hesitate at all. Though Bucky may have been a friend to her, anyone who attacks her husband she was going to attack right back. 

 

She aimed and fired the grenade gun, but purposely she didn’t hit him. She just hit the car beside him to cause an explosion. Steve looked to her, seeing how she was taking breaths and slouching against the car from her bleeding shoulder  _ still  _ bleeding. He looked back once more but saw that Bucky was gone. 

 

Soon sirens were heard. STRIKE team were now here. Steve turned to Peggy and quickly went over to her “You’re hurt”

 

His shock was causing him to try and not think about it, he put his hand on her shoulder “We’ll get you patched up”

 

“Steve-”

 

“It’s not that bad honest-”

 

“ _ Steve _ ” she raised the hand of her non injured side and put it to his cheek to get his attention, looking into his eyes “It was him wasn’t it?”

 

Steve’s breath shook as he slowly nodded “I think so…” 

 

Peggy bit her lip and before she had the chance to say anything. The STRIKE team and other agents go out of their cars and called for them to get on their knees. Rumlow and Collins went over to Steve and manhandled him by grabbing his shoulders. 

 

“Get your hands off him!” Peggy scowled, to then have Collins go over and grab her. Steve tried to get out of Rumlow’s grip and take a swing for Collins “Don’t touch her!” 

 

Rumlow threw Steve on the ground and pressed the barrel of his gun against his head, looking to Peggy “Unless you want a bullet in the back of your boys head. I’d stop resisting” 

 

Peggy looked to Steve with a glint of fear in her eyes and then just got down on her knees. For them to handcuff her, Steve then just doing the same as the feeling sunk in that his best friend was the person that killed his boss, tried to kill his wife and tried to kill him. 

 

Sam, Steve and Peggy were all shoved in a van together with two guards sat with them. They locked Steve in a something to make extra sure he couldn’t break out, it locked him in from his forearms but also his stomach and back. Peggy sat next to him, trying to stay focus but she must have lost quite a bit of blood right now. But she wanted to focus on Steve best she could.

 

“It was him...he looked right at me...and he didn’t even know me” 

 

Peggy’s hands were cuffed but she was still able to hold the hand of his that was to the side of her, loosely but still, she stroked his knuckles with her thumb as Sam said “How is that possible it was like seventy years ago”

 

With her eyes still on Steve, Peggy shook her head and answered Sam “He must have survived the fall. When Steve rescued him the first time, he found him in some kind of lab they may have done something to him-”

 

“Zola. He experimented on him and whatever he did...he was alive all that time and they found him” Steve bowed his head and whispered under his breath “All because I was a split second too late”

 

“Don’t go start blaming yourself again, Steve” she whispered softly “It wasn’t your fault” 

 

“Before I had you I had nothing, and even when I had nothing I had Bucky”

 

Peggy listened but then she closed her eyes as she let out a small wince from the pain hitting her again. Steve quickly looked to her and cursed at himself in his head for forgetting about her wound. He looked to the guards “You need to get a doctor or get her to hospital or something. She’s going to bleed out if we don’t put pressure on her wound” 

 

One guard held out their electric baton at them as if to threaten. Then unexpectedly they turned on the guard beside them and struck him with the baton to then kicking them in the face, knocking them out. It was none other than Maria Hill “That thing was squeezing my brain”

 

She looked to them all and saw their surprised faces, she looked to Sam and then asked Steve and Peggy “Who’s this guy?”

 

Steve nodded his head to Sam “Maria Hill, Sam Wilson. Sam this is Agent Maria Hill”

 

“Should be Director but we won’t get into that” Peggy added in an exhausted mumble. 

 

Sam just nodded to her “Ma’am”

 

Maria nodded back and then took her eyes over to Steve and Peggy “If you can’t tell, I’m here to get you out of here” she held up the set of keys that would unlock them all from being restrained. She handled Steve first so he could attend to Peggy’s shoulder and put pressure on it. Maria then uncuffed Peggy and then Sam. She didn’t stop there, she had a laser burner to cut through the floor of the truck and quickly they were out of there. 

 

Maria led them to a truck that she had parked not far from where they escaped from, it was all planned. Maria looked to them as they walked behind her “Long day?”

 

Peggy sighed as she rested against Steve “Maria, you have no idea”

 

“Well don’t worry, Peggy. I’m taking you guys somewhere safe, somewhere that Hydra or SHIELD or  _ whatever  _ doesn’t even know exists” she opened the back door of the truck and nodded for them to get in as she went to the front to drive. 

 

Now that he could, Steve pressed his hands down firmly to her shoulder “How’re you holding up?”

 

“I’ll be fine, honestly it just needs patching up. I heal quicker than I used to remember?”

 

Steve gave her a tight smile and just nodded. Peggy raised her hand and gently put it underneath his chin “I’m so sorry”

 

“Me too...I thought he was dead, died as a hero. Now I find out he’s been credible for over two dozen assassinations. One being our friend who is also our current friend's  _ father _ ” he scoffed and shook his head “When did our lives get so complicated”

 

“Steve. The man I saw did not look like the Bucky Barnes we knew”

 

“Meaning?”

 

“Meaning I think he has been manipulated. Zola was experimenting on him to make him into something. Maybe this is it. This is his final product”

 

Steve looked to her “Like...brainwashing?”

 

“I’d say so, yes” Peggy nodded. She then gripped to his chin to get him to keep his eyes on her, she raised her brows and nodded “He isn’t someone we need to stop, he’s someone we need to save. And we can do it, you and I. Together” 

 

Steve gave her a teary smile and nodded “I hope you’re right”

 

“I’m a Carter. I’m always right”

 

Steve let out a breathless laugh and nodded as he bowed his head for a moment. Peggy leaned forward and pressed her lips against his cheek for a moment.

 

* * *

 

It wasn’t too long before Maria pulled up and opened the door for them to get out. Steve hopped out first and then held his arms out for Peggy, holding onto her securely and checking once again that she was alright as Sam followed. 

 

They had no idea where the hell they were but right now they didn’t care or even bother to ask question. This was Maria, they knew that they could trust her. As they walked down the hall, allies of Maria came running over as she called “GSW she’s lost at least a pint!”

 

Sam then added “Maybe two!”

 

The Doctor then requested “Let me take her!”

 

“They’ll want to see him first” Maria said boldly. Now just confusing them. They were led down the hall more into a room, there they saw Natasha. Who had her arms folded and a small smirk on her face “Bout time you slackers got here”

 

Peggy’s brows pinched “Natasha was the hell is going on?”

 

Instead of giving a verbal answer, Natasha just drew the curtain back and showed Nick Fury alive and  _ almost  _ well lying in bed. He looked to Steve and Peggy and ignored their shocked faces as he said “About damn time” 

 

Peggy stared at him and couldn’t help but whisper “What the fuck” 

 

Nick grumbled a small laugh “Watch the mouth, Carter” he looked over to the Doctor that was with them “Dr Fine, please attend to Agent Carter’s shoulder wound” 

 

Steve let go of Peggy for her to sit on a stool near the bed and have her shoulder attended to as they listened to Nick explain how it was that he was alive but more importantly why he did it in the first place. 

 

Peggy looked to Natasha “Did you know the whole time?”

 

Natasha shook her head “No. After you guys went on your little mission, Maria filled me in with everything”

 

“Why all the secrecy? Why not just tell us?” Steve asked, Peggy looked over to him and smirked as she saw he was a little offended by it all. 

 

But both Maria and Nick gave him a plausible answer. Steve rubbed his forehead and nodded, motioning his hand to Peggy and turning to Dr Fine “She’s going to be alright? Right?”

 

Peggy rolled her eyes “I’ll be fine”

 

“I’ve known you for seventy four years I’m well aware you’re not a Doctor” 

 

Peggy just gave him a scowl through her eyes before Fine actually had a chance to answer “She’ll be fine, Cap. Once the stitching is done, with the help of the serum it should heal up nicely”

 

Peggy just looked to Steve and raised her brows as a way to say she told him so, which she did in fact when they were in the truck on their way here. Steve just looked away from her and looked back to Nick “Okay. You got us here. Now what? Project insight is going to happen in less than fourteen hours” 

 

Nick shrugged, shaking his head “Oh don’t worry Captain. We have everything planned”

 

Peggy raised a brow “Then tell us” 

 

Nick looked to her “Not with you lot staring at me around a bed like I’m a sick relative. After your stitching is done and I get myself up we’ll go over to what Hill likes to think is our office and talk about things”

 

Maria just rolled her eyes and walked off. Steve pulled a stood over and sat in front of Peggy, watching Fine as he stitched her shoulder up, Steve then looked to Nick as he heard him say “You were confronted with him then? The assassin. I gather that bullet is his doing, Carter”

 

Steve and Peggy just looked to each other, as he bowed his head and cleared his throat, Peggy asked in a rather sharp tone “Did you know the winter soldier's true identity was none other than Sergeant James Barnes? Howling Commando  _ and  _ friend” 

 

“Best friend” Steve mumbled under his breath, to which Peggy just glanced to him and frowned. Peggy looked back to Nick and spoke more sternly “ _ Did you _ ?”

 

Nick slowly shook his head “I can assure you, Agent Carter. I had no idea of the winter soldier's identity”

 

Steve just stood up and walked away. Peggy then quickly did the same with Fine then saying “Agent Carter, I haven’t properly stitched-”

 

“To hell with it” she quickly answered back as she carried on in her treks and followed Steve. They got down the hall before she caught his elbow and turned him around, his back pressed against the wall as she then stood in front of him. His head bowed again and letting out shaken breaths. 

 

Peggy cupped his cheeks and pressed her forehead against his, their eyes closed. Peggy swallowed thickly as a tear ran down her own cheek “I don’t know what I can do to make this alright and I hate that”

 

Steve just held onto her hands that still rested at his cheeks, he pulled his head back and just looked to her, his watery eyes looking into hers, he just took a breath and shook his head “You just gotta stay by me” 

 

Peggy nodded with a tight watery smile before whispering in a cracked voice “Always”

 

Steve entwined their fingers as he lowered their hands and sighed as he pressed the back of his head against the wall, she looking to her and shook his head “You really think he didn’t know?”

 

“Nick has lied about many things but I don’t think he is lying about this” 

 

“He better not be”

 

“Steve” Peggy sighed “Whether Fury knew or not is not the issue at hand. Forget that. We focus on us and where we go from here” 

 

“I can’t kill him” Steve said with a wobble in the back of his voice, shaking his head “I won’t have the strength to do that Peggy. And I won’t be able to let others do it either” 

 

“Hopefully it won’t come to that”

 

“How else can it end?”

 

“With that attitude you will get nowhere” Peggy put one hand back to his cheek “All three of us were meant to have died years ago but didn’t...we owe it to ourselves and him to try and get him back to the way he was, or at least out of their capture. Because that’s what he is. A prisoner. Don’t think he is anything else and don’t you dare blame yourself anymore...I mean it”

 

Steve gave her a gentle look and then just nodded “Yes ma’am” 

 

Peggy leaned up to him and pressed her lips to his. Her hand sliding down from his cheek and resting at his neck, she rubbed her nose against his as she whispered “Just remember that I love you”

 

“Just about the only thing that keeps me going, Peg” Steve said with a warm smile. She then settled back down onto her heel. Steve kissed her forehead “And I love you” 

 

“Then let’s get our arses back in there and find out how to stop all this, find a way to help our friend”

 

Steve once again nodded, Peggy then led him out as she kept her hand held onto his and they walked back down the hallway, ready to talk tactics. Fury was now up, sat in front of all the data and files they had and looking through them with Maria and Natasha as Sam watched from the sidelines, a little lost in it all still. 

 

Once Steve and Peggy joined, they started to talk through things. How they could stop the launch, Fury and Maria had their own target blades that they would expect Steve to switch, they would ask Peggy but she was more useful in other things. If anything Steve was given the easy job. Nick then went onto say how they could save SHIELD. And that’s where Steve argued back. 

 

“Hydra grew right under your nose and nobody noticed”

 

“Why’d you think we’re meeting in this cave? I noticed”

 

Steve put his hand back in his pocket “How many paid the price before you did”

 

“Steven” Peggy scowled under her breath. They quite literally just discussed this they were to work with Nick to get things done not argue and point fingers. Nick looked around as everyone remained silent “I told you and Carter. I didn’t know about Barnes” 

 

“Even if you had would you have told us?” Steve asked in a more calm manner “Or would you have compartmentalized that too? SHIELD, Hydra. It all goes”

 

Maria back him up “He’s right” she nodded to Nick, of course she didn’t like saying it. Like everyone else she wished it weren’t the case but this was the reality no matter how much it sucked. Nick looked around again, with Peggy and Natasha knowing. Sam just shrugged “Don’t look at me. I do what he does just slower”

 

Nick looked back to Steve and let out a small hum as he sat back “Well, looks like you’re giving the orders now, Captain”

 

Steve took in a breath and slowly nodded, he then quickly turned to Peggy “What do we do?” 

 

Peggy exhaled a small breath with a smirk on her face and just put her hand on his chest in an almost sympathetic way and then laid her hands down on the small desk that was made up of junk “We go through the head quarters. No guns blazing we have to be slick with this, almost graceful” 

 

“That’s easy for you to say” Natasha mumbled as she sat back in her chair, Peggy just smirked to her and shook her head, carrying on with what she was saying “I don’t just mean for our benefit but if we can reduce the trauma to the public like we weren’t able to do in New York then the better”

 

They all nodded. Fully agreeing with that. Sam then asked how they were going to do that, but Peggy already had a plan up her sleeves and when she told it to them, they agreed with it straight away. 

 

Like Steve, Peggy had a stealth uniform and Maria managed to swipe it before SHIELD confiscated all of the content to do with the pair. Unfortunately, Steve was still without his suit. The stealth one was still in Peggy’s car that may have been found right now and his normal one was taken before Maria had the chance to sneak it out. 

 

Steve looked to Peggy and raised his brows “So how do you fix that one?”

 

“Don’t underestimate me” Peggy said with a small smirk, she put her hand on his back and gently pushed him to go outside where there was a bridge, she linked her arm with his. 

 

“What’re we doing out here?”

 

“I thought you would like to get some air. Calm before the storm as they say” she said as they stopped in the middle of the bridge and looked out at the view, she took her arm from his and leaned against the railing. 

 

It soon fell silent, she looked to Steve and could tell he was lost in thought. Probably thinking back to a time he and Bucky had when younger, and she just let him. She didn’t want to interrupt that, she then got lost in her own thought. 

 

_ “I’m coming with you” Peggy stated as she and Steve stood in her small yet still private office that was in the corner of the SSR HQ.  _

 

_ “Where?” Steve asked, not looking at her but at the board she had hung up on the wall of all the Hydra bases they had taken, his head then snapped to her as she said “The  _ _ Valkyrie” _

 

_ He just stared at her in complete silence, she just shrugged “If it comes to it” _

 

_ Steve then slowly shook his head and raised his brows to her as he said “No...you’re not” _

 

_ “With all due respect, dear Captain. But it isn’t up to you”  _

 

_ Steve took a step closer to her and still shook his head to her once again “Peggy. Please you can’t”  _

 

_ Peggy squinted her eyes to him slightly as she stared at him, with one hand on her hip and the other resting against the desk she shrugged to him “Give me one good reason”  _

 

_ Steve opened his mouth but struggled on what to say. To which Peggy raised her brows to and just nodded “There you go. Decided”  _

 

_ “It’s not decided. You can’t-” _

 

_ “Can’t what, Steve?” Peggy said now rather sharply “Can’t keep up? Can’t fight as well? Has your ego gone that big that you’ve forgotten who showed you how to shoot, hit-” _

 

_ “I haven’t forgotten of course I haven’t. This isn’t about you it’s about me” _

 

_ She just looked to him, her brows pinching together as she closed her eyes whilst her head shook, not understanding a word that he was saying “What?” _

 

_ “It isn’t about your strength it’s about mine”  _

 

_ “Your strength? You need to be stronger than me?” _

 

_ Steve ran his fingers through his hair and groaned under his breath. He was getting frustrated with himself to the fact that he was explaining this very poorly and quite possibly offending the woman in front of her. He walked more to her and quickly said “It’s not about physical strength I don’t mean that” _

 

_ He looked her in the eyes and let out a breath before saying “I just about had the strength to carry on after Bucky because I had you but I don’t have the strength to lose you too it would kill me”  _

 

_ Peggy looked down to the floor and sighed, then hearing him say “I might sound like a dick but I just can’t risk losing you. I lost my best friend in this damn war if I lost the girl I love it would push me to the edge” _

 

_ When she heard the word love she looked back up to him, completely stunned. He hadn’t even realised that he said it. Steve sighed and just looked to her “What?” _

 

_ Peggy swallowed thickly and then said in a dry voice “You just said you love me” _

 

_ Steve then went back on being stuck on what to say. As he then just realised himself, Peggy softly raised her brows “Do you love me?” _

 

_ He just looked at her for a little while longer, after a moment he then just frowned and whispered “Yes, I do”  _

 

_ Not knowing what to say at first, Peggy just leaned forward and surprised him by kissing him. They hadn’t had some great love affair during the war. They were close, there was no doubt in that. Every minute of everyday together for the past three years. And they had kissed before but it was when they were merry after Steve got the 107th back from enemy lines but they never quite put a stamp on it.  _

 

_ Peggy cupped his cheeks and then said as she pulled away ever so slightly “I do too”  _

 

_ “You love me?” _

 

_ Peggy sighed and said in a heavy whisper before taking his lips again “Oh, so much”  _

 

_ Steve wrapped his arms around her waist as hers went around his neck. Pulling each other as close as humanly possible, their first kiss wasn’t like this. It was more soft and tender whereas this was full blown passion.  _

 

_ After a while of their embrace. Peggy pulled her lips away again and shook her head against his as their forehead pressed together “Damn us for not saying anything sooner” _

 

_ “We’ve said it now” Steve whispered, giving her one more quick kiss “And hearing it from you is the best thing I coulda heard right now” _

 

_ “Ditto” Peggy slid her hands to his chest and pulled back whilst still being in his hold, she looked into his eyes “I understand what you mean about not having the strength...but this is a war. There is never any guarantees. And I don’t want to be apart from you in this, imagine how I would feel if I could have been there to stop you getting killed if you did? And you with me...if we’re together and we go down, at least we go town together. But there is every fighting chance that we will come out of this together. Alive”  _

 

_ Steve just looked to her as he considered her words. And she was right, she always was.  _

 

Of course it did come down to getting on the Valkyrie and she did go with him. They went down together but seventy years later they also came out of it together.  _ Alive _ . Just like she said. Peggy felt his hand rest over hers and then grip onto it, she turned to him as he took in a deep breath. It seems his moment of living in the past came to an end. Peggy just stood up straight, remaining silent and just wrapped her arms around his waist. 

 

Sam then came over to them “He’s gonna be there you know?”

 

Peggy stood back up straight as Steve answered him “I know”

 

“Look, whoever he used to be. The guy he is now, I don’t think he’s the kind you save. He’s the kind you stop”

 

Steve took in a breath “I don’t know if I can do that”

 

“He might not give you a choice, he doesn’t know you”

 

Peggy then looked to Sam and fought Steve’s corner as she stated simply “He will”

 

Silence fell between the three of them. Peggy then put her hand on Steve’s arm, ready to tug on him to follow her as she stated “Gear up, it’s time” she then pulled his arm, Steve then following her as they walked.

 

Hearing Sam call “You gonna wear that, Steve?”

 

Peggy looked over her shoulder “If we’re going to fight a war, we need to get  _ him  _ a uniform” 

 

Leaving Sam confused, Steve just looked to her “I think I know what you’re thinking”

 

“I hope you are, cause then that would mean you’re moving up in the world” she smiled to him. 

 

Steve just gave her a hard stare and slowly nodded as he took a guess “Smithsonian?” 

  
Peggy gave him an impressed look and swopped her arm back in his. It was moments like this that made her proud of  _ herself _ . After all these years, she was still training him well. 


End file.
